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| Belatedly Govt. yields to opposition pressure on JPC | | | It was simply much ado about nothing when the Congress led UPA Government remained adamant on rejecting the opposition demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum. The Government's obduracy had ended the winter session of the Parliament without transacting any business. That was not only a heavy loss to the country's exchequer but also a blow to the democratic tradtions.The Government had,after the opposition insisted on a JPC probe, agreed to appear before the PAC.However,the opposition rejected the Government offer and kept on shouting in favour of a probe by the JPC.When the budget session was to begin in New Delhi from Monday the Government seemed to be on the tenterhooks. It wanted to settle the dispute with the opposition lest the budget session too remained disturbed and without routine business transactions. Hence senior Government functionaries, including the Finance Minister,Pranab Mukherjee,had a couple of sessions with the senior opposition leaders.And it was on Tuesday that Prime Minister,Manmohan Singh, himself announced on the floor of the Lok Sabha the Government's decision to the probe into the 2G spectrum conducted by the Joint Parliamentary Committee.He said that his Government was committed to root out corruption in the country and to begin with it had decided to set up a JPC for probing into the 2G spectrum.
Manmohan Singh announced that a formal motion on the issue of setting up JPC for probing into the 2G spectrum would be tabled in the House and suggested to the speaker of the Lok Sbha to go ahead with the task of constituting the the JPC.The Prime Minister, in support of the Government's decision to concede the opposition demand, said that the country could ill afford to allow the budget session of the parliament to meet the same fate that the winter session had met.He said that any loss of sitting during the budget session would be harmful to the democratic traditions.When for full winter months the Congress led Government opposed the opposition demand for JPC was it not aware of the harm the continued disruptions to the proceedings in the two houses of Parliament had on the democratic system ?Was not the Government then aware of the harm sitting less winter session of Parliament could have on the plans of adoption of various laws and
regulations? What had actually motivated the Government to accept the opposition demand for a JPC probe into the 2G spectrum when earlier it had stoutly rejected the demand?
Reasons are not difficult to find.The Government had received reports on the opposition plan on causing continued disruptions in the two houses of Parliament so that no business was transacted. Since the two houses of the Parliament were to meet for the budget session no Government could afford to get the budget proposals passed without a proper discussion on the floor of the parliament. It did not want to create another history, after one was created when there was no business transacted during the winter session of Parliament.Secondly,the departmental inquiry and other investigations had revealed that apart from A. Raja and other key players in the Telecom Department and Business Houses no other senior Government functionary, especially the Prime Minister and his ministerial colleagues, were involved in the scam. This had encouraged the Government to accept the opposition demand for a JPC probe into the 2 G spectrum. No doubt Prime Minister had the decency to make the announcement on the JPC issue himself it did not enlarge his political image as the announcement had been made under the opposition pressure.But the opposition showed grace when the leader of the opposition,Sushma Swaraj,while thanking the Prime Minister for his announcement, said that it was not the victory of the opposition or the defeat of the ruling lliance but victory for democracy. Hence the Government needs to realise one thing. It should no longer try to hoodwink the opposition and accept its genuine demands without any waste of time.
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