'Forged' Letter decision left to Speaker

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, AUG. 28. The Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr. G.M.C. Balayogi, has yet to make up his mind about what he wants to do with the alleged forged letter from the Cabinet Secretary to the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister on the sensitive disinvestment issue. His expected ruling on the issue was not given today and it may be another day or two before the matter is decided.

Today, there was another round of consultations between the Speaker and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, the former Prime Minister, Mr. Chandra Shekhar, the deputy leader of the Congress party, Mr. Madhavrao Scindia, the chief whip of the Congress and one of the key actors in the drama, Mr. Priyaranjan Dasmunshi, and CPI(M) leader, Mr. Somnath Chatterjee. But no decision was taken.

It now appears that there are two opinions on sending the matter to the Privileges Committee. The main hurdle is that neither Mr. Dasmunshi, who referred to the alleged Cabinet Secretary's letter disapproving Air India disinvestment, nor Mr. Arun Shourie, Minister for Disinvestment, who told the House that the letter was ``fake,'' have raised the privilege issue in the House in a formal manner. Nor have either of them written to the Speaker raising it as a privilege issue.

The question that was discussed today was whether it would be wise for the Speaker to suo motu refer the matter to the Privileges Committee.

During the consultations, one of the suggestions made was that perhaps the authenticity or otherwise of the letter should first be looked at by a House committee and then it should be decided to send it to the Privileges Committee.

Apparently, the Congress leaders, Mr. Scindia and Mr. Dasmunshi, were in favour of sending it directly to the Privileges Committee rather than doing this via a House committee.

The view of Mr. Somnath Chatterjee was that at the moment it was not a privilege issue, but may become one after the letter was established to be genuine or fake.

It is being admitted in Government circles that the issue has become unnecessarily complicated by the ordering of a CBI inquiry into the matter. But that was something which could not be remedied now. The Government wants the Speaker to decide, but would prefer not to set new precedents on sending matters to the Privilege Committee when privilege has been raised as an issue by either of the parties concerned.

The net result was that the issue remained undecided.

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Section  : National
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