The government finally agreed to a 30-member joint parliamentary committee to probe the 2G spectrum allocation scam under pressure from the non-Congress, non—BJP parties in the UPA, the NDA, and smaller parties across the spectrum. A formal motion in this regard is to be moved in the Lok Sabha on Thursday and in the Rajya Sabha after February 28. The JPC would be led by a Lok Sabha member from the Congress party.
According to sources, the panel would have 20 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha. The government will finalise the terms of reference of the JPC in consultation with the Leaders of the Opposition in the two Houses.
While the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference and Muslim League Kerala State Committee from the UPA did not ask to be included in the JPC, the Shiromani Akali Dal from the NDA, too, remained passive, sources said.
The Congress will have 11 members (eight from the Lok Sabha and three from the Rajya Sabha), the BJP six (three from the LS, two from the RS, leaving one member to ally Shiv Sena), the JD-U two, Left two, the DMK two, BSP two, and the Samajwadi Party, Trinamul Congress, Biju Janata Dal, NCP and AIADMK one member each in the JPC, they added. This means the TDP, the RLD, CPI, RJD and JD(S) would be left out as they have less than seven members in the Lok Sabha.
While the Trinamul Congress has decided to nominate Mr Kalyan Banerjee (Lok Sabha) to the JPC, the main Opposition BJP has named heavyweights Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Harin Pathak (LS), and Mr S.S. Ahluwalia and Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad (RS) for the panel. The AIADMK has decided to nominate its sitting Lok Sabha member.
BSP supremo and UP chief minister Mayawati will convey to the government her party’s two representatives for the JPC on Thursday.
The Congress party will have the most members. Party chief Sonia Gandhi cleared their names on Wednesday night. The CPI(M) is expected to nominate one member each from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
Parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Wednesday held several sittings with finance minister and Leader of the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee. He also met Mrs Gandhi and the party’s crisis managers and provided feedback on the talks he had with Opposition leaders during the day.
The names of Congress leaders P.C. Chacko and V. Kishore Chandra Deo are doing the rounds for the chairmanship of the committee, a formal motion for which will be moved by Mr Pranab Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The motion is expected to contain the terms of reference of the committee and will recommend to the Rajya Sabha nomination of its members to the JPC.
The DMK’s A. Raja, who was forced to quit as telecom minister and is currently lodged in Tihar jail, is unlikely to take part in discussions when the motion for the constitution of the JPC is taken up in the Lok Sabha. The issue will be taken up next week in the Rajya Sabha.
The time given for the committee to submit its report could be till the last day of this year’s Monsoon Session of Parliament. This will be the first JPC to be constituted after the Congress-led UPA came to power in 2004. Among likely members are Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), M. Thambidurai (AIADMK), T.R. Baalu and Tiruchi Siva (both DMK), and Arjun Charan Sethi (BJD). The Shiv Sena will decide its nominee on Thursday.
There is speculation that SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav could represent his party. The talk in political circles is that ministerial hopefuls are dreading becoming members of the JPC at a time when the PM has announced that he will reconstitute his ministry after the Budget Session of Parliament.
Earlier on Wednesday, AIADMK MP M. Thambidurai met Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and NDA working chairperson L.K. Advani to request that the principal Opposition also take up its case for a 30-member JPC.
Both Mr Advani and Ms Swaraj conveyed these sentiments to the government and suggested that a bigger JPC be formed. “Even parliamentary standing committees, which are considered mini-JPCs, have 30 members. Moreover, the earlier three JPCs on corruption have had 30 members,” Ms Swaraj told reporters.