A fresh attempt on Sunday to end the over two-week impasse in Parliament over 2G spectrum allocation issue made no headway with the Union government sticking to its “no JPC” stand and the Opposition insisting on “only JPC” demand.
Functioning of both Houses of Parliament has been affected since November 10, second day of the winter session, over the issue. The government also ruled out adjourning the session ahead of its scheduled date of December 13.
On Sunday, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee reached out to senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and NDA Working Chairperson L.K. Advani and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj appealing for cooperation; offering a discussion in Parliament; and a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe into the 2G issue.
The Congress leader also spoke to CPI(M) Rajya Sabha leader Sitaram Yechury, who said that while the Left parties were against disruption in Parliament, the responsibility to run the Houses rested with the government. “We cannot understand why you do not agree to a JPC,” the CPI(M) leader said he told Mr. Mukherjee.
“The government is primarily and constitutionally accountable to Parliament and Parliament is the only forum to deal with such a situation. The only option is JPC [Joint Parliamentary Committee probe],” BJP Parliamentary Party spokesperson S.S. Ahluwalia told The Hindu .
“Speaker Meira Kumar has called a meeting of party leaders on Tuesday with the view to ending the stalemate,” her office said on Sunday.
Mr. Mukherjee's latest attempt to find a way out was made public by Ms. Swaraj through her Twitter post. She mentioned that the Minister called her and Mr. Advani urging them to give up the JPC demand.
“Pranab Mukherjee spoke to me & Advaniji and told that JPC was not possible. He ‘appealed' that we give up our demand for JPC,” said one post while the second read: “We told Pranab Mukherjee that we could not give up demand for JPC.” Yet another post said details of the conversation were with Mr. Ahluwalia.
