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Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee, who held discussions with leaders of all parties to end the impasse over the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the 2G spectrum allocation, said the discussions were very good.
The feeling was that some understanding would be hammered out before the start of the budget session of Parliament.
While no announcement on a JPC is possible outside Parliament, the general view is that the government will concede the demand after a debate on a motion it moves. . This became clear when Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj reportedly said the government must bring in a motion on the JPC, and if it wanted a debate “we could agree on it.”
The sense among leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left is the government was moving in the direction of accepting a JPC.
Apparently, it was Gurudas Dasgupta of the CPI who said no one should see the issue in terms of victory or defeat of the Opposition or the ruling coalition. The important thing was to ensure that Parliament functioned.
That sentiment was later echoed by NDA working chairman L.K. Advani.
Basudeb Acharia of the CPI (M) was clear that his party did not want to disturb the House, while it reaffirmed its JPC demand. Later Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) signalled that two things emerged from the meeting: the House must function and a JPC must be set up. It was for the government to work out the modality.
While Congress allies emphasised the need to ensure that Parliament functioned and pointed out that various agencies were already probing the alleged cases of corruption, the Opposition leaders were one in their view that House must function and a JPC must also be set up.
T.R. Baalu of the DMK felt the budget and important economic matters should be dealt with before other issues like the JPC were taken up.
The Samajwadi Party was very much with the Opposition on this, but the Bahujan Samaj Party felt that it was most important that Parliament worked, with or without a JPC.
Political signal
Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal (United) said while various agencies were probing the 2G scandal, Parliament was accountable to the people and had a role to play. A JPC would give a larger political signal to the people that Parliament was seized of the matter and various issues of governance would be addressed.
The feeling was that some understanding would be hammered out before the start of the budget session of Parliament.
While no announcement on a JPC is possible outside Parliament, the general view is that the government will concede the demand after a debate on a motion it moves. . This became clear when Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj reportedly said the government must bring in a motion on the JPC, and if it wanted a debate “we could agree on it.”
The sense among leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left is the government was moving in the direction of accepting a JPC.
Apparently, it was Gurudas Dasgupta of the CPI who said no one should see the issue in terms of victory or defeat of the Opposition or the ruling coalition. The important thing was to ensure that Parliament functioned.
That sentiment was later echoed by NDA working chairman L.K. Advani.
Basudeb Acharia of the CPI (M) was clear that his party did not want to disturb the House, while it reaffirmed its JPC demand. Later Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) signalled that two things emerged from the meeting: the House must function and a JPC must be set up. It was for the government to work out the modality.
While Congress allies emphasised the need to ensure that Parliament functioned and pointed out that various agencies were already probing the alleged cases of corruption, the Opposition leaders were one in their view that House must function and a JPC must also be set up.
T.R. Baalu of the DMK felt the budget and important economic matters should be dealt with before other issues like the JPC were taken up.
The Samajwadi Party was very much with the Opposition on this, but the Bahujan Samaj Party felt that it was most important that Parliament worked, with or without a JPC.
Political signal
Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal (United) said while various agencies were probing the 2G scandal, Parliament was accountable to the people and had a role to play. A JPC would give a larger political signal to the people that Parliament was seized of the matter and various issues of governance would be addressed.
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