With both the sides — ruling and Opposition parties — toughening their respective stand on the formation of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the alleged 2G spectrum allocation scam, the deadlock in Parliament continued on Monday and appeared to be far from being resolved.
As the Third Front parties have decided to hold a dharna outside Parliament on Tuesday to press for a JPC and the main Opposition BJP accused the ruling UPA for indulging in cover up activities to shield corrupt people. The Congress, however, on its part blamed the Opposition for not being serious on the issue of corruption.
Claiming that the demand for JPC is neither “reasonable” nor “acceptable”, AICC spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, “If the Opposition parties are so serious about having a JPC probe into the alleged corruption case, they need to prove why. We (Congress and government) do not need to answer why not.”
Mr Singhvi also launched a frontal attack by saying that the Opposition’s intent is not to serve “public interest”, as the nation would not be able to get any substantial result out of a JPC probe. “Their only interest by demanding JPC is to see that they manage to score some political points,” he added. They intend to summon the Prime Minister in the case, he said, adding that but “no Parliamentary rule allows JPC to summon ministers without the sanction of the Speaker”.
Meanwhile, the non-NDA and non-UPA parties comprising the CPI, CPI(M), RSP, Forward Bloc, JD(S), RLD, BJD, AIADMK, MDMK, AGP and the TDP on Monday met and passed a resolution demanding the JPC.