The BJP stalled Rajya Sabha proceedings on Thursday over the issue of appointment of two Elders, including a nominated member, to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on 2G scam and termed it “as a bad precedent having dangerous implications”.
The Government, however, managed to get the motion passed to appoint Congress member P Bhattacharya and nominated member Ashok S Ganguly to the 30-member panel amidst din. The BJP members repeatedly stormed into the well of the House to register their protest against the motion arguing that the committee did not have proportionate representation of various parties.
The motion was moved to fill up two vacancies created in the JPC after the retirement of DMK member Tiruchi Siva and resignation of EMS Natchiappan (Congress), who became a Minister in July.
As soon as the motion was brought in the second attempt since the one failed last week, BJP members demanded its recall as it would have “dangerous implications”. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajeev Shukla, who moved the motion, insisted that the matter was discussed with different political parties and he had consulted BJP leaders — including leader of Opposition in the lok Sabha Arun Jaitley. The JPC has 20 members from the lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha.
Jaitley said: “JPC represents strength of all parties and it cannot be winner take all and this motion was against all parliamentary norms.” He said the Government’s move would set a bad precedent and have far reaching consequences and urged the treasury to have consultations with leaders like Sitaram Yechury(CPM) and Ravi Shankar Prasad(BJP).
Maintaining that the motion will have “dangerous implications” as it will not have opposition representation, he said, “The numbers matter, remembering what has happened (in JPC). A Parliamentary Committee always represents the strength of various political parties. The Government is taking away both the vacancies. This has never happened... This is against Parliamentary norms and extremely dangerous. The precedent they are setting is extremely bad.”
Criticising the move, his party colleague M Venkaiah Naidu (BJP) said, “It will have serious repercussions. The Government is trying to dominate. It will set a bad precedent...Chair cannot conduct voting. Don’t make new rulings,” he said.
Yechury said those parties should fill up vacancies whose members have created them and appoint a member of the same party by choice.
“let conventions be followed,” he said.
K Tyagi (JD-U) said there were other parties — including his party, SP and BSP whose strength was not less than AIADMK and CPI(M) and “they should also have a say”.