The Hindu : Parliamentary norms violated: Cong.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 15, 2003

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National

Parliamentary norms violated: Cong.

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI AUG. 14. Opposition and ruling party members continue to trade charges on the political controversy related to the Public Accounts Committee report even as this has led to the tabling of the no-confidence motion against the Government by the Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has charged the Opposition with not respecting the ruling of the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and "observations of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha'' (understood to have been made at a morning party leaders' meeting) against a debate in Parliament on this issue. The Congress has said that all parliamentary norms have been violated as the PAC is one of the important parliamentary committees through which the Government's spending is put under a microscope. The Opposition has also disputed the authenticity of the "so-called observations of the Speaker being circulated by the BJP'' when nothing has been stated in the House.

There are glaring contradictions in what the two sides are saying. While the BJP today started a letter campaign — it claims to have collected 10 letters from 10 PAC members to be sent to the Speaker disassociating themselves from the PAC report presented to Parliament on August 6 — some Opposition members alleged that the BJP was pressuring MPs to do this. It has also been said that it is against all parliamentary norms to be present and give consent to the contents of a report, and then "disassociate'' with it.

Some PAC members said the committee had its last meeting on July 31 with Buta Singh in the chair. Nineteen of the 22 members were present and of these four wanted the finalisation of the report to be delayed, a request which was turned down by the chairman. Then began the process of reading the draft paragraph by paragraph and finalising it unanimously. At different points three of the four PAC members who wanted the finalisation delayed suggested some changes in the wording of some paragraphs. Apparently, the suggestions were accepted and carried out.

"After this if they disassociate themselves with the report it amounts to total mockery of the entire committee system,'' said one MP from a party "friendly'' to the BJP speaking on condition of anonymity.

Jaipal Reddy (Congress) said: "We condemn the pressure being brought upon NDA members of the PAC to write letters to the Speaker indicating their disassociation with the PAC report tabled in the House. It amounts to gross violation of all parliamentary norms, naked downright abuse of parliamentary process. At this rate parliamentary committees will not be able to function at all.'' Somnath Chatterjee (CPI-M) said the "real agenda of the Government was to cover up corruption and denigrate the parliamentary system.''

Another twist to the continuing drama was given by the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj. Although the BJP has been demanding for the last several days that records of PAC meetings leading up to the finalisation of the report be laid in the House to make all things clear — a demand which the Opposition has been making vociferously saying the papers will prove who is right — today Ms. Swaraj disassociated the Government from the BJP demand.

She said that "the Government has not responded to the Opposition demand for tabling of records of PAC meetings ...I do not know what Mr. Malhotra has been saying on behalf of the BJP.''

With the PAC issue now overshadowed by the no-confidence motion — during which the Opposition plans to raise several issues related to the Kargil War defence purchases — the morning meeting of party leaders called by the Speaker to discuss the PAC stalemate did not yield much.

It witnessed a spat between the chief whip of the Congress, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, and his BJP counterpart, V.K. Malhotra.

Mr. Dasmunshi virtually charged Mr. Malhotra with speaking daily on a subject on which he could have no authentic information since he was not a member of the PAC.

He challenged the BJP and the Government to lay all records of PAC meetings in the House and expose the truth.

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