CHUCK OUT CHACKO, SAYS UNITED OPP
Friday, 26 April 2013 | PNS | New Delhi
Rising above political and ideological differences, 15 members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing the 2G spectrum scam approached Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Thursday expressing ‘no confidence’ in JPC Chairman PC Chacko.
This came after Chacko postponed the JPC meeting scheduled at 3 pm, citing the demise of a TMC Lok Sabha member, as the reason for doing so. Rattled by the Opposition’s onslaught, the Congress also shot off a letter to the Speaker demanding ouster of three BJP members from the JPC on the ground of conflict of interest.
The all-out war in the JPC started with arch rivals like Trinamool Congress and the Left from West Bengal and AIADMK and DMK from Tamil Nadu attending a joint meeting with BJP and JD(U) members at the Biju Janata Dal’s Parliamentary office here, to firm up a joint strategy against the Congress.
Those who petitioned the Speaker against Chacko include BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh, Gopinath Munde, Ravishankar Prasad, Harin Pathak and Dharmendra Pradhan, DMK leaders TR Baalu and T Siva, Sharad Yadav and RCP Singh from the JD-U, CPI’s Gurudas Dasgupta, Sitaram Yechury of the CPM, Arjun Charan Sethi from the BJD, AIADMK leader M Thambidurai and Kalyan Banerjee of Trinamool Congress.
“After submission of no confidence motion signed by 15 members of the JPC, PC Chacko has no moral right to continue as the Chairman. No confidence motion against PC Chacko has been moved by majority of members of the JPC. Only six out of 15 signatories are from the BJP,” Lok Sabha’s leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj said.
The Opposition’s united strategy immediately triggered retaliation from the Congress and the ruling party demanded ouster of Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh and Ravishankar Prasad from the JPC.
Some Congress MPs led by JP Aggarwal met Meira Kumar and submitted a letter demanding removal of the three BJP members on the ground that they were “instrumental in taking major decisions relating to the telecom sector that are being investigated by the JPC, as its terms of reference ranges from 1998 to 2009.”
Jaswant Singh was Chairman of a high-level Group on Telecom in 1998 and later head of a Group of Ministers on Telecom in which Yashwant Sinha and Ravishankar Prasad were members, they pointed out.
Significantly, at the time of the JPC’s inception also, the Congress had objected to their involvement on the same grounds, but had later accepted the Speaker’s decision approving their membership.The Congress’s knee jerk reaction signals the desperation in the ruling camp, which did not anticipate such a crisis hitting its JPC plans.
The Chacko-headed panel had stirred up a hornet’s nest by denying former Telecom Minister A Raja an opportunity to appear before the JPC, giving a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the scam and pointing fingers at former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, even without hearing him.
With half of the panel MPs seeking removal of Chacko, the Congress desperately needs the support of DS Chauhan and Satish Chandra Mishra of the Bahujan Samaj Party and Shailendra Kumar of the Samajwadi Party.
The SP said it would “oppose” the JPC draft report if former Telecom Minister A Raja is not allowed to personally depose before it, but ruled out siding with the BJP in demanding removal of Chacko as Chairman of the JPC.
“We wish to state very clearly that A Raja should be given an opportunity to appear before the JPC. If not, then we will oppose the draft report,” SP leader Naresh Agarwal told reporters outside Parliament House.
Chacko, who staunchly opposed the possibility of his quitting, was present at the Congress Core Group headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
The meeting decided to buy time so that the party’s political managers could try to break the Opposition’s unity and also ensure support of the BSP and SP.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath rejected the demand for Chacko’s removal while expressing confidence that the members will exercise correct judgement irrespective of their party affiliation.
The Congress banks on the fact that there is no rule under which the JPC Chairman can be removed, but realises that the fate of the JPC report would remain questionable if majority of the members reject it.
Constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap admitted that there is no rule for removal of the JPC Chairman as those framing the Constitution did not visualize that Parliamentary panels would work on party lines, however, to retain the credibility and sanctity of the JPC the Speaker must seriously consider the request of the 15 members who have demanded Chacko’s removal.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/todays-newspaper/chuck-out-chacko-says-united-opp.html