Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee and Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj crossed swords in the Lok Sabha on Thursday on the issue of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) vis-à-vis 2G spectrum allocation. For his part Communications Minister Kapil Sibal reeled out statistics on how the erstwhile National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime, due to its telecom policy, had caused a severe loss, and that led to pandemonium in the House.
Mr. Mukherjee, who moved the motion on the setting up of the JPC and replied to the debate on it, referred to the stalling of Parliament by the Opposition in the last session and said the United Progressive Alliance-II government would travel the extra mile to ensure smooth running of Parliament. “We will be accommodative. We will travel the extra mile to ensure that these unfortunate events do not recur.”
At one point Mr. Mukherjee accepted his failure, as the Leader of the House, to carry the Opposition with him on the issue. He had a dig at the then NDA regime and quoted the then Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, as saying that a group of MPs sitting in a JPC could not substitute discussion and debate on the floor of the House, when the Congress demanded a JPC on the Tehelka expose issue. Ms. Swaraj, participating in the debate on the motion, wondered why the government, which was accepting the JPC demand now, did not do so in the winter session which would have allowed Parliament to continue its proceedings. She was critical of Mr. Mukherjee for dubbing the Opposition as “Maoists,” while he said the Left extremists dubbed Parliament as an “abode of pigs” and therefore wanted all concerned to act responsibly.
“Was our demand [for JPC] violent or unconstitutional,” she sought to know from Mr. Mukherjee. Mr. Sibal, hitting out at the BJP, said whenever the party got an opportunity to attack the Constitutional authorities, it had done so whether it was the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Chief Election Commissioner or others.
Sibal's reasoning
Referring to his earlier press statement where he had dismissed the suggestion of the CAG that there was a presumptive loss of Rs. 1,76,000 crore, Mr. Sibal said he said so because for allocation of spectrum of 6.2 MHZ, the government had never charged any money from any telecom companies till 2003 as the spectrum was given free along with the licence.
The first-come, first-served policy was initiated by the NDA government, Mr. Sibal said and questioned who should be sent to jail, referring to the former Telecom Minister A. Raja, for alleged irregularities in the NDA regime. “...If Raja gave spectrum free, he is a criminal. And, if their [NDA] Minister did so, he is not,” he said sarcastically. The Minister also denied Ms. Swaraj's allegation that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh admitted compromising on corruption.
“The PM has never said that the government compromised on corruption. What he had said was that there was compulsion of coalition,” the Minister said.
Intervening on another occasion, BJP member Jaswant Singh dismissed Mr. Sibal's suggestion that the government had no say on the CAG report and said drafts of the report were always submitted to the government.
Rashtriya Janata Dal member Lalu Prasad said the terms of reference (ToR) of the JPC should have been decided jointly. The Niira Radia conversation tapes brought out by an English magazine should be made a part of the ToR of the JPC.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Basudeb Acharia said the demand for JPC was made in only very rare cases. “This scam has wide ramifications. That is why all parties are demanding the JPC,” he said.
