Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Veerappa Moily lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party for threatening to stall the proceedings of Parliament till Joint Parliamentary Committee Chairperson P.C. Chacko was sacked.
Mr. Moily described BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar’s threat not to allow Parliament to function till Mr. Chacko was sacked as undemocratic. He added that it only exhibited the BJP’s scant respect for democracy and lack of confidence in the parliamentary system.
Addressing presspersons in Gulbarga on Saturday, Mr. Moily said instead of disrupting the Parliament proceedings again and again, the BJP should adopt other ways to get their demands fulfilled.
The BJP had already petitioned to Speaker Meira Kumar demanding the removal of Mr. Chacko as the chairperson of the JPC, and they should wait for the decision instead of holding out threats to disrupt Parliament, he added.
Mr. Moily advised the BJP to have some respect and belief in the parliamentary system of democracy in which the JPC was a part, and give up the practise of politicising every issue.
All political parties are represented in the JPC and views of one party cannot be forced upon it.
CBI affidavit issue
On the controversy surrounding CBI’s affidavit filed in the Supreme Court stating that its status report on “Coalgate” was shared with Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and Prime Minister’s Office, Mr. Moily said that the law ministry played the role of a legal adviser to all the government departments and the Director of the Prosecution in the CBI is the person from the law ministry.
Asked whether it was wrong on the part of the CBI and the Law Ministry to share the status report in the light of a direction from the Supreme Court that the status report should not be shared by CBI with the government before it is submitted to the court, Mr. Moily said that he was not aware of any such order.
