BAC, parties ignore defence for discussion

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 19. For all the noise being made by political parties on the tehelka affair and the indignation expressed about alleged defence deals with shady characters offering kickbacks, the Business Advisory Committee of the Lok Sabha ignored the Defence Ministry when deciding which Ministry to take up for a detailed discussion before the guillotine is applied and the Finance Bill is passed.

Surprisingly, even the Congress Party did not insist on a discussion on the Defence Ministry, perhaps because it did not attend to participate in any discussion till its demand for a JPC probe into the tehelka affair was conceded.

And other parties too, which are never tired of talking about national security, failed to insist on a discussion on defence. This appeared all the more astonishing on a day when a border skirmish with Bangladesh which had left 15 jawans dead was the headline news. Even the Telugu Desam Party, which has been saying that it wants tehelka to be discussed did not say that Defence was its priority -- its preference was Rural Development -- even though it was obvious that a discussion on defence could be used to talk about ``defence deals,'' both real and fictitious, tehelka style.

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Section  : National
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