Govt. dodging debate and JPC?

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, APRIL 22. From April 16, the day the second part of the budget session resumed, the Government has been saying that it wants the Tehelka issue to be discussed in Parliament. However, the hard fact is that despite the Opposition notice for such a discussion in the Rajya Sabha, and the Chairperson's admission of the same, no time has been allotted for which the Government's nod is a must.

Leaders of non-National Democratic Alliance parties agree that if a debate on the Tehelka disclosures had started in the Rajya Sabha, the chances of a breakthrough in the stalemate in Parliament would have been brighter. This point was also endorsed by an NDA partner, Shiv Sena; but for reasons unexplained by the Government, no debate could take place because the Government did not give the green signal. The Government has been able to get away with this because the focus was on Congress stalling the Lok Sabha.

The fact is the Government does not want a debate in the Rajya Sabha, where it is in a minority, for fear that a resolution recommending a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the Tehelka expose would be carried in that House. The Government's obstinacy on the JPC is related to the fact that it would not enjoy a majority in a joint committee of both the Houses - its majority in the Lok Sabha is now dependent on the Telugu Desam Party, which is only extending outside support, and in the Rajya sabha the NDA is hopelessly outnumbered.

Another aspect is that though the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, grandly ``offered'' a JPC probe into the stock market scandal involving several thousands of crores of rupees, it seems that the Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, is not at all pleased. The result is that no JPC has been ordered into this either.

Allergic to JPC: Jaipal

``In the Rajya Sabha we were keen on a discussion on Tehelka, but no time has been allotted for the debate for which notices have been given and admitted,'' Mr. Jaipal Reddy, Congress spokesperson, emphasised today. ``The Government seems allergic to a JPC on any of the scandals that have plagued the Vajpayee government - not on Tehelka, and not on the stock market scandal.'' After all, in parliamentary democracy a government is first of all accountable to Parliament, and this Government is running away from it, he added.

Several other factors also point to this. It was the Government which floated the idea of cutting the crucial budget session (the BJP spokesperson had made the suggestion). And if it had its way - it could not because the Speaker did not agree - by now Parliament would have been adjourned sine die.

With the Congress and the Government adamant, the chances of any meaningful debate in the Lok Sabha on the budget allocations for the Ministries of Rural Development and Disinvestment over the next two days are rather slim. However, tomorrow morning Congress leaders will be meeting, as they have been doing every morning during the session, to review the strategy of pressing its demand for a JPC into the Tehelka issue and stalling proceedings in the absence of any Government commitment.

But a few points are being forcibly made. While the Congress has emerged as the villain of the piece so far as stalling Parliament is concerned, the Government's changing tactics have been less than statesmanlike. It made an open offer of a JPC or any other inquiry the Opposition wanted after the Tehelka scandal broke out. But now it has backed out, using the setting up of a judicial inquiry as an excuse. It offered a JPC on the stock market scandal, but it has not said so on the floor of Parliament. It said it wanted a debate on Tehelka but it has not allotted time for the debate in the Rajya Sabha.

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Section  : National
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