Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar’s luncheon all-party meeting on Tuesday failed to end the deadlock in Parliament over demands for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the alleged 2G spectrum allocation scam, as both sides — the government and the Opposition — refused to budge from their stated positions.
At the meeting, which lasted for about two-and-a-half hours, leader of the Lok Sabha and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee rejected the Opposition’s demand for a JPC probe into the alleged telecom scam.
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj informed reporters that all Opposition parties were on the same page in demanding a JPC into the alleged irregularities in the allotment of spectrum.
She also rejected the government’s offer of letting the Supreme Court monitor a probe into the scam. Tuesday was the 13th consecutive day when Parliament could not transact any business. Ms Kumar said she was not disappointed. “Efforts will continue to break the logjam,” she said.
Sources informed that when the Opposition questioned why the government was not setting up a JPC as it had been done earlier also, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah argued that no result came out of such probes at four earlier occasions and their recommendations were not accepted. Ms Swaraj, it is learnt, then countered, saying if this was the case, then the provision for a JPC should be removed from the rulebook, as the same reason would be given every time such a probe is sought.
CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta is believed to have said that records show that Mr Abdullah’s contention is wrong as the ATR was submitted in the Harshad Mehta stocks scam by the JPC of which he was a member. “Some of its suggestions were accepted,” he added.
The AIADMK and the TDP referred to the government’s move to get the supplementary demands for grants of various departments passed on Wednesday and said it should not be done unless normalcy returns to Parliament.