The Budget Session of Parliament starting on Monday might turn out to be far stormier than government managers were hoping for after a consensus evolved between the ruling side and the Opposition on the setting up of a JPC on the 2G spectrum scam.
Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi’s sudden demand on Sunday for the constitution of a JPC into all aspects of last year’s Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, in which he is in the eye of the storm, took the government’s crisis managers by surprise. The Congress spokesperson declined to comment on the matter on Sunday.
The BJP, which lost considerable political ground to the Congress in Delhi over the past decade, might hope to exploit Mr Kalmadi’s demand in an effort to recover it. This is because any probe into the Games means scrutiny into the role of key Congress leaders involved in organising and managing the event. The party might thus be expected to raise a strong pitch in Parliament on this matter in the coming days.
The government has so far responded positively to the Opposition’s demand for a JPC probe into the 2G spectrum scam, which has put the its key ally, the DMK, in the dock. It might find it difficult to reject Mr Kalmadi’s demand for a JPC probe into the Games after he was sacked as CWG organising committee chief and as secretary of the Congress Parliamentary Party. It is not yet clear if Mr Kalmadi, now unsure of his parliamentary career in the Congress, plans to make a suo motu statement in the Lok Sabha.
The Opposition, meanwhile, on Sunday asked the government to announce the formation of a JPC into the 2G spectrum scam on Tuesday, February 22. Some leaders who attended a meeting called by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar during the day suggested that a Union minister might be asked to resign to head the JPC on the 2G scam. This minister would obviously be from the Congress, which is the largest single party in Parliament.
Finance minister and Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee assured Opposition leaders at the Speaker’s meeting that the government would make the JPC announcement in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, when actual proceedings start in the Budget Session. The Opposition leaders made it clear that Parliament would not function if there was no announcement on Tuesday.
The BJP’s Lok Sabha deputy leader, Mr Gopinath Munde, said it was trying to impress upon the government that the JPC should have more than 30 members so that smaller parties also got representation. BJD leader Arjun Charan Sethi also said the JPC should be “broad-based”.
It is speculated that a Union minister could be asked to resign from the government to head the committee, but there is no confirmation of this yet. B. Shankaranand had resigned as a minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government in the 1980s to head the JPC on Bofors.
Sources said if the JPC was a 30-member affair, it would have 20 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha. If it had only 21 members, 14 would be from the Lower House and seven from the Upper House.
If the size of the JPC was kept small, it could give representation only to seven or nine major parties. The Congress, BJP, Trinamul Congress, Samajwadi Party, BSP, JD(U), DMK and CPI(M) could get membership in view of their numbers. There are a total of 37 parties in Parliament.
In such a situation, the AIADMK, which has been at the forefront of the demand for a JPC, is unlikely to be included in view of its lack of strength in Parliament. Similar will be the fate of the NCP, National Conference and Muslim League, despite all these being UPA constituents.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday expressed hope that the Budget Session will be “peaceful” and “productive”, and said the government was willing to discuss all issues which the Opposition. “I am looking forward to a fruitful and productive Parliament session. The government on its part is ready to discuss any issue which may be brought by the Opposition,” Dr Singh told reporters after emerging from the meeting called by the Speaker.
The session begins on Monday with the President’s address to the joint sitting of both Houses. The 2011-12 General Budget will be presented on Monday, February 28, while the Railway Budget as well as the pre-Budget Economic Survey will be on Friday, February 25.