The Hindu : Members concerned over `breach of confidentiality'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 20, 2003

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Members concerned over `breach of confidentiality'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI AUG. 19. Are discussions among political party leaders in the Speaker's chamber meant to be confidential?

The issue figured in the Lok Sabha debate on the no-confidence motion when the CPI (M) leader, Somnath Chatterjee, virtually challenged the statements made by the BJP chief whip, V.K. Malhotra, on the issue of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) report on defence purchases for the Kargil war.

Several Opposition MPs were on their feet and wanted to know on what basis Mr. Malhotra first claimed that there was no CVC report on the Kargil war purchases and later that there were only two related items in that report. Did Mr. Malhotra have access to the report that the Government had denied to Parliament and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Mr. Chatterjee wanted to know.

Even as Mr. Malhotra got up to defend himself, the issue threatened to blow up and the Speaker, Manohar Joshi, intervened to ask Mr. Malhotra to authenticate and lay on the table the document to support his claim about the CVC report. He said he was upholding a similar ruling given by the Deputy Speaker, P.M. Sayeed, on Monday.

The matter came up when the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, questioned a point made on Monday by the Congress leader, Jaipal Reddy, that five items relating to Kargil in the Comptroller and Auditor-General's report had also been discussed in the CVC report. Virtually challenging Mr. Reddy, she said there were only two items in the CVC report.

Mr. Chatterjee said that "perhaps" as a Minister, Ms. Swaraj could have some access to a report marked "secret" and wondered how Mr. Malhotra could have access to it?

Parties agree that in the politically acrimonious atmosphere that prevails today, the rule of "confidentiality" of what happens in the Speaker's chamber is violated more often than it is observed. Party leaders across the political divide do "brief" correspondents on the discussions in the Speaker's chamber.

In the midst of the standoff in Parliament on the denial of the CVC report to the PAC, one political party recently "circulated" to the press the Speaker's "observations" made in his chamber and this "brazen violation" of the confidentiality norm, as one opposition MP described it, was what angered the Opposition.

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