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Speaker warns of action against members criticising Deo report

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Wednesday warned of disciplinary action against members who criticised the parliamentary committee report that cleared Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and Congress MP Ahmed Patel in the cash-for-vote scam.

“Action is going to be taken. The way they are treating the report and criticising it, I will not allow this to happen. You are deliberately denigrating this institution.”

He was reacting to a demand for constituting a joint parliamentary committee to probe 2G spectrum allocations.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Basudeb Acharia had demanded suspension of question hour to discuss the “scandal” in spectrum allocation and the setting up of a JPC to probe allotments made by the Communications Ministry. He said the government had lost Rs. 1 lakh crore in the allotment.

While disallowing a discussion on the matter as it was raised earlier also, Mr. Chatterjee said, “You demand a JPC but when it submits its report, you criticise it.”

Mohd. Salim (CPI-M) and V.K. Malhotra of the Bharatiya Janata Party had written a dissent note on the report of the committee, headed by Congress leader V. Kishore Chandra Deo, which went into the cash-for-vote scam.

The members of the Left parties along with those from the MDMK (Vaiko) walked out in protest against the Speaker’s ruling.

Ananth Kumar and some other BJP members protested, saying they had a right to criticise the Deo panel report. Communist Party of India leader Gurudas Dasgupta said there was a move to “cover up serious malpractices.”

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