NEW DELHI, 19 April — India’s Parliament was adjourned again yesterday with Congress party lawmakers trooping into the well of the house to press their demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to probe the exposure of corruption in defense deals by the tehelka.com website.
The Congress pledged to press on with its demand for a JPC inquiry into the affair.
“It’s not only sleaze, it’s a multi-dimensional scam,” spokesman Anand Sharma said, adding that the investigation set up by the government under a retired Supreme Court judge was bound to be a whitewash.
The Lok Sabha (lower house) was adjourned for the day while the Rajya Sabha (upper house) was adjourned till 2:00 p.m. following an uproar over the same issue. The proceedings in the Lok Sabha began with ruling Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Samata Party lawmakers launching a counter offensive against the Congress by bringing up the charge by Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had links with Russia’s KGB.
Referring to an Asian Age newspaper report last week that quoted Swamy’s allegation against Sonia, the BJP and Samata Party members demanded that the charge should be probed. Members of Parliament affiliated to the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) also drew attention to the report, holding the newspaper aloft.
The Congress spokesman dubbed the allegation “base and baseless”. Both Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Congress President Sonia Gandhi sat quietly, as treasury and opposition lawmakers engaged in verbal exchanges that lasted for almost 10 minutes. The bedlam prompted Lok Sabha Speaker G.M.C. Balayogi to adjourn the house for the day. In the Rajya Sabha, Congress lawmaker Kapil Sibal said he wanted to explain his party’s demand for a JPC probe into the Tehelka expose. But Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Krishan Kant disallowed him to make any submission and asked that the scheduled business be taken up.
Before Sibal could speak, members of the ruling coalition raised slogans in the house. All this while, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) and Samajwadi Party (SP) lawmakers sat quietly. Later Sibal and party spokesman S. Jaipal Reddy said, “We still stand by our demand for a JPC on the Tehelka expose.”
The disruption of Parliament has prevented a debate on 2001/02 budget bill. The budget vote proposal and a government plan to cut the Parliament session short by 10 days were due to be discussed at an all-party meeting later yesterday. The government decided to cut the session short to allow MPs to campaign for assembly elections in five states which are scheduled for May 10.
