The joint parliamentary committee set up to probe the pricing of telecom licences and spectrum during NDA and UPA rule is sharply divided on political lines even before it is fully constituted. The division will reflect in its report expected “by the end of the next session of Parliament”.
The Lok Sabha appointed 20 members last week while the Rajya Sabha will name 10 members this week.
But before that, Congress insiders are putting a questionmark on the credibility of two former Union ministers: Mr Jaswant Singh and Mr Yashwant Sinha. They are members of the JPC from the Lok Sabha.
Ruling party managers are mounting pressure on them to quit the panel on the ground that Mr Singh was associated with a telecom policy review committee during the Vajpayee government while Mr Sinha was the finance minister. Hence both of them should stay away from the panel, they suggest.
But a senior leader of the BJP on Sunday asked why Mr Singh and Mr Sinha should resign at the instance of the Congress.
They were nominated by the BJP, they said, asking why the Congress was scared of them.
If the division in the panel continues, then its report too will not be unanimous, irrespective of who heads the JPC.
The Congress’ priority is to protect itself from the charge of ignoring the scam and to shield ally DMK, whose leaders have handled the telecom portfolio since 2004.
This is because the Opposition has been targeting both of them for committing and ignoring irregularities in spectrum allocation.
BJP, AIADMK, Left, JD(U) and BJD members in the panel will not give a clean chit to either former Union minister A. Raja or the Centre, which is alleged to have ignored the irregularities due to “compulsions of coalition”.
The Congress and the DMK will have to remain together for obvious reasons. But it will be interesting to see whether members of the Trinamul Congress and the supporting parties, like the Samajwadi Party and the BSP, in the panel will bail the Centre out.
Meanwhile, the process of formation of the JPC will be completed on Tuesday when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh moves a motion in the Rajya Sabha, which is expected to approve it.
The motion will also have the names of 10 members from the Rajya Sabha for the JPC. While BJP leaders S.S. Ahluwalia and Ravishankar Prasad have already been nominated by the party, the names of Tiruchi Siva (DMK), S.C. Mishra (BSP), Abhishek Singhvi, Jayanthi Natarajan (both Congress) and Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) are doing the rounds.
After the adoption of the motion, the matter would be referred back to the Lok Sabha and Speaker Meira Kumar will nominate a chairperson. The names of Congress leaders V. Kishore Chandra Deo and P.C. Chacko are being mentioned to head the committee.