Mounted guards practise for President Pratibha Patil’s arrival for the budget session of Parliament at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Friday. (AFP)

New Delhi, Feb. 18: The government wants to ensure that the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe on 2G spectrum, which it has indicated is a near-certainty, hands in its report quickly so that the Opposition cannot milk the issue politically for long.

Government sources said it was possible the report would be submitted during the monsoon session of Parliament.

The sources believe there is not much left to investigate, anyway, with the CBI probe having brought into the open most of the facts about the 2G allocation. Besides, they say, the Justice Shivraj Patil committee has already studied the telecom policy decisions by various governments, and the JPC can use its report as a ready reference.

Congress leaders argue that a JPC now would carry an entirely different significance from what such a probe could have meant earlier — which is why the demand was not accepted during the winter session.

They say that the swift government action, including the arrest of Raja and the interrogation of many influential suspects, has changed the public’s perception of the issue.

In a few weeks, the CBI will file the chargesheet, insulating the government from the charges of inaction and complicity.

“A JPC after that would cease to be as effective a political tool as the BJP would have originally turned it into,” a senior Congress leader said.

He argued that had a JPC been formed earlier, the BJP would have given it credit for the CBI action and projected the government as a co-accused. By delaying this process, he said, the government has firmly established itself as a prosecutor and reduced the JPC’s importance.

The government anyway accepts that the elections in Kerala, Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Assam would be held under the shadow of the current scandals. But it hopes that an early JPC report would wind up the chapter long before the next round of Assembly polls, including the crucial Uttar Pradesh election.

The Centre realises that the BJP members on the JPC may try to drag the probe on, so the UPA members will be given a clear brief to wrap up the investigation within five to six months.

Deciding the JPC’s composition could prove a minor irritant, though. The government, which had planned a 21-member panel — 14 from the Lok Sabha and seven from the Rajya Sabha — is already under pressure to increase the strength to 30. It may now agree to 20 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha.

Parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Bansal today admitted that most parties wanted representation on the probe panel. Bansal, who said no formal decision had so far been taken on accepting the JPC demand, asserted that the panel’s ambit could not be extended to cover different subjects as demanded by L.K. Advani.

Sources said the Congress would still insist on a full-fledged debate before it announced the JPC, and that the Prime Minister was certain to make his point before a cabinet colleague, probably telecom minister Kapil Sibal, moved a resolution for the panel’s constitution.

Bansal said the Left could find representation on the JPC. The four Left parties have written to the government asking they be treated as a bloc. On their individual strengths, none of the four can make the panel.

The parties certain to have members on the committee are the Congress, BJP, Trinamul Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Janata Dal (United) and the DMK. The AIADMK, which is at the forefront of the JPC demand, and the Nationalist Congress Party are likely to have to sit out.