Buch ducks PAC meet, says 'personal exigency'; Rahul questions absence

THE meeting of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was postponed on Thursday after Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch ducked it citing "personal exigency".

- PREETHA NAIR

Panel chairman and Congress leader K C Venugopal adjourned the meeting after informing the members of Buch's absence and said that she would be summoned again.

Buch, who is facing allegations of conflict of interest, was scheduled to appear before the PAC here on Thursday. While the ruling BJP members sought the intervention of the Lok Sabha Speaker, LoP Rahul Gandhi targeted the government and sought to know who is "protecting Buch from being answerable to the PAC".

"Why is Madhabi Buch reluctant to answer questions before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament? Who is behind the plan to protect her from being answerable to the PAC?" Gandhi wrote on X.