NEW DELHI, 25 April — After a six-week long impasse, both houses of the Parliament resumed normal functioning yesterday. Both houses had been witness to noisy scenes, with opposition members storming the well demanding formation of joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to probe into the Tehelka expose of corruption in defense deals.
The stalemate was finally resolved on Monday during a high level parliamentary meeting called by the Lok Sabha Speaker G.M.C. Balyogi. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, leader of the opposition, and Congress party chief, Sonia Gandhi, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan, Madhav Rao Scindia and Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi.
When Vajpayee “professed” to have an open mind on the Congress demand for JPC on Tehelka expose, Congress agreed to an orderly discussion of the financial business in the House.
Yesterday, as per the “mutually acceptable agreement,” discussion was carried on demands for grants for Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry for Disinvestment. The Financial Bill will be brought up for discussion and passage today. Discussion on the Tehelka expose may be taken up tomorrow with an “open mind” to consider the formation of JPC.
Ironically, in resolving the parliamentary stalemate, the Lok Sabha speaker has scored over the prime minister. On Sunday night, Vajpayee wrote a letter to Sonia, appealing her to allow the passage of the national budget “without acrimony and further loss of time.” Vajpayee urged Sonia to end the parliamentary impasse “in the wider interest keeping in view the prestige of the Parliament which was high in public domain.”
Sonia promptly turned down his appeal. She urged the prime minister to act as the leader of the house and find a “mutually acceptable solution” to the impasse.
While normalcy has returned to functioning of the Parliament, the tiff between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress over JPC is not over as yet. The Congress is determined to raise its demand for JPC once the budget is passed. Yesterday, during its parliamentary party meeting, the BJP rejected the Congress demand for JPC.
The BJP spokesperson V.K. Malhotra said, “We have ruled out JPC.” Since a commission has been formed to investigate into the Tehelka expose, Malhotra said, a JPC is not needed. There is a view that the government is deliberately avoiding a debate on the Tehelka issue in the Parliament and is against the formation of a JPC.
Numerically, in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house, as the BJP is outnumbered, it has not allowed discussion on the subject. The government fears that if a JPC is formed, it would not enjoy a majority in it. After all, the government’s majority in Lok Sabha is dependent on Telugu Desam Party (TDP) that extends it only outside support.
Not surprisingly, in Congress spokesman Jaipal Reddy’s opinion, “The government seems allergic to a JPC on any of the scandals that have plagued the Vajpayee government. In the Rajya Sabha we were keen on a discussion on Tehelka, but no time has been allotted for the debate for which notices have been given and admitted.”
