Cong. sticks to JPC probe

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 19. The Congress today refused to budge from its demand for a JPC probe into the Tehelka expose. The position was made clear by the Leader of the Opposition, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi at her meeting with the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr. G. M. Balayogi and later by Mr. Scindia at the Business Advisory Committee(BAC) meeting in the evening.

At her 20-minute meeting with the Speaker, which took place at his invitation, Mrs. Gandhi reportedly told the Speaker that the party had done its utmost to put an end to the crisis in Parliament and had made the most reasonable demand for the setting up of a JPC.

This, the Congress president said was the minimum which it expected the Government to do, and there was no going back on the demand.

Both Mrs. Gandhi and Mr. Madhavrao Scindia who accompanied her to the Speaker's meeting pointed out to Mr. Balayogi, that the original offer for a JPC probe was made by the Government and now it was backing out of it. The two leaders said that in the past Congress governments had set up a JPC probe even when Parliament was not in session and had suo motu announced a CBI probe.

The two leaders also emphasised the Congress desire to have a comprehensive discussion on the Budget before it was passed, as opposed to the government's plan to get it passed without one. Mrs. Gandhi later made the same point in a brief chat with newspersons saying that ``a discussion on the Budget was a must and the government's move to push it through was unprecedented, it's never happened before'' she said.

Even at the BAC meeting, the Congress representatives, Mr. Scindia and Mr. Pawan Bansal stuck to the demand for a JPC probe. Mr. Scindia made it clear that the party had agreed to the tentative list of business prepared by the BAC on the condition that the Government would agree to the JPC probe `even at this late stage'. He reportedly made the point that ``there are occasions when the Government must display some statesmanship and make a gesture to break the deadlock , giving into our reasonable demand would be one such gesture'' he said.

The party also chose to position itself against attempts by the Treasury benches to get the Budget passed without a discussion. Both Mr. Scindia and party spokesperson, Mr. Jaipal Reddy made the point that the Congress had very deliberately and consciously limited itself to a demand for a JPC probe, which according to them was most reasonable.

The Congress also accused the Government of trying to convert the Speaker's role from that of an `umpire to a player' in its attempt to get the Union and Railway Budgets passed forcibly. The Congress spokesperson expressed the hope that the Speaker would resist all such moves. His party, Mr. Reddy said, would resist moves to adjourn the House sine die `eloquently and vehemently.'

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