Parliment Stalling: Impasse enters its 14th day

Chennai: The UPA government has suffered a further blow with the current impasse over the functioning of parliament entering its 14th day. The opposition is hell bent on a Joint Parliamentary Commission (JPC) probe on the 2G spectrum scam and the stalling may continue as the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pawan Bansal, has ruled out a sine die adjournment. Congress Mps feel that adjourning proceedings sine die is better than the daily a blockade of parliament.
They are also concerned about the impasse’s negative fallout in terms of the perception that government is stonewalling the probe. An all-party meet by Speaker, Meira Kumar to tackle this issue, failed to reach any conclusion.
Summing up the failure of talks at the meet, Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj said the government offered a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe into the scam, which the Opposition turned down.
“Some parties like BJD who had been less enthusiastic about a JPC have also jumped [on to] the bandwagon now,” she added.
“Marxist party has joined the BJP in stalling parliament for the last ten days and is playing an opportunist game,” said Oonmen Chandy, opposition leader in kerala assembly. “These parties are crying corruption when they themselves are corrupt,” he added.
Reacting to corruption charges, Karnataka Padesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President, Ramesh Chennithala said, “Congress party has always taken stern steps against corruption, the resignation of Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Union Telecom Minister, A Raja, are examples of the steps taken by us.”
“Kerala has seen the largest scam in the SNC Lavalin dealings, in which CPM State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan had been allegedly named and in Karnataka, Chief Minister and BJP leader, B S Yeddyurappa was involved in land issues,” Chenithala pointed out.
Continuous stalling of parliament will only lead to weakening of the country’s democratic system. Moreover, continuous stalling shows the lack of political will of those involved. “Parliament is convened by spending crores of money for having discussions on issues related to the country and the people,” Chennithala added.
Questioning the rationale behind the Opposition's demand for constituting a JPC to probe the 2G spectrum allotment controversy, the government said that no purpose would be served by it.
“We have had JPCs before, but nothing has come out of them. It will be just another instrument to create controversy on a daily basis. It is pure politics to ensure that democracy becomes defunct,” said the Union Telecom Minister, Kabil Sibal. “The government is willing to have a Supreme Court-monitored investigation.” He pointed out.
The National Democratic Alliance itself had decided in 2003 that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) should dictate the allocation policy. “The Opposition has a right to throw the government out, but if it cannot do that then it has no right to disallow the government from functioning,” Sibal said.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s discussions with the Opposition has not helped him in ending the daily stalemate on the nature of the probe in the 2G scam.

Vaishnavi Iyer

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http://www.newkerala.com/news/world/fullnews-92563.html
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article915530.ece