Congress today appeared to have softened its stand on the joint parliamentary committee issue in a bid to break the deadlock in Parliament on the second-generation mobile telephony spectrum scam.
Ahead of Tuesday's meeting with opposition parties convened by the government, Congress today appeared to have softened its stand on the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) issue in a bid to break the deadlock in Parliament on the second-generation mobile telephony spectrum scam.
"We are open to discussing such a resolution in the Parliament on the JPC issue," Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan told reporters in Delhi, noting that she was seeking cooperation of the opposition to ensure a smooth budget session beginning on February 21.
She said if such a resolution is brought it should be voted upon.
At the same time, Natarajan did not elaborate whether the Congress favoured such resolutions in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. She merely said it was for the government to decide in the matter.
While the ruling UPA obviously has majority in the Lower House, it is in a minority in the Upper House.
Natarajan's suo motu remarks at the party briefing assume significance as the BJP and Left parties have remained adamant on the issue of JPC in spite of arrest of former telecom minister A Raja by CBI in connection with the scam.
Facing a volley of questions, the Congress spokesperson said that the idea did not mean the party has softened its stand on the issue of the JPC and said it was still opposed to the setting up of such a committee.
"There is no step forward. Our position is the same," Natarajan said.
She said that in view of the complete washout of the winter session of Parliament and the deadlock continuing, "We would like to call upon all parties to come forward and cooperate and ensure that some way is found out to end the deadlock."
She denied that the Congress itself was making a suggestion saying that such an idea was "already in the public domain and we are not pulling it out of thin air".
The Congress statement came even as BJP insisted that only a JPC probe could bring out the truth on the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
Natarajan said it was important to ensure the budget session of Parliament runs smoothly and "all important issues that agitate the minds of the opposition" are discussed on the floor of the House.
"This is an appeal we would like to make and we hope that from that meeting the deadlock would be broken and Parliament would continue in the normal routine way during the budget session," she said.
This issue would be discussed at the meeting of all opposition leaders convened by Mukherjee on February 8 in an attempt to break the Parliament deadlock, the spokesperson said.
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