Opposition on Thursday stalled a move by the Government to appoint a nominated member in the JPC on 2G in place of a DMK member and expressed doubts over the Centre’s intention.
Registering a strong protest, members from the BJP and AIADMK said a loud “no” to the motion that sought to appoint two members to the panel in place of DMK member Tiruchi Siva and Congress member EMS Sudarsana Natchiappan. As the Opposition sought either the withdrawal of the motion or a division of votes through secret ballot, Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien deferred it for further discussion.
leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley said the Government should have wider consultations on the issue as it is “not the same composition (partywise)” as suggested by the Government. “Otherwise there has to be a secret ballot” on the motion, he said. The motion to appoint two members in the Joint Committee to examine matters related to allocation and pricing of telecom licenses and spectrum was necessitated following the retirement of Siva from Rajya Sabha membership and Natchiappan’s resignation after the Congress member became a Union Minister. The Government proposed the names of Congress member Pradip Bhattacharya and nominated member Ashok S Ganguly.
As soon as Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajeev Shukla moved the motion, V Maitreyan (AIADMK) rose to oppose it saying representation from Tamil Nadu in Rajya Sabha has changed and AIADMK has now more members in the House. BJP members said that when the Committee was set up, members were elected on the basis of the proportion of the representation a party had in the Upper House and now the Government is trying to “change the composition of the Committee” in the name of giving representation to nominated members.
Terming it “extraneous,” Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) asked the government to “withdraw” it saying “we have serious doubts over the government’s intention” with regard to its stand over the JPC on the 2G issue. Jaitely said while they (Congress) are well within their right to replace Natchiappan with another party member as they have the numbers, he wondered “for some reason, they do not want a DMK member” this time and hence, they “developed a new formula” of having one member from Congress and one from among the nominated.