Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee told BJP leaders LK Advani and Sushma Swaraj that the government could not agree to a JPC probe as the earlier experiences have not been good.
In a bid to end Parliament impasse, government today reached out to BJP saying it was ready for a discussion on second-generation (2G) mobile telephony spectrum issue and a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe but rejected the demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC), which failed to cut ice with the main opposition.
Leader of the House in Lok Sabha and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee today called NDA working-chairperson LK Advani and leader of opposition in Lower House Sushma Swaraj to discuss the continuing deadlock in Parliament since November 10 over opposition demand for a JPC probe.
Sources said Mukherjee told the two BJP leaders that the government could not agree to a JPC probe as the earlier experiences have not been good. He recounted the Bofors and Harshad Mehta stock scams in which JPC probes were held and maintained that they became political and the opposition turned them into election issues to garner votes.
Mukherjee suggested that instead of a JPC probe, a full-fledged debate on the 2G mobile bandwidth allocation scam can be held in Parliament. This was rejected by the BJP leaders who said discussions have already been held in earlier sessions of Parliament on the scam.
The senior Congress leader also suggested that the Supreme Court can take over the supervision of the CBI probe into the 2G mobile bandwidth scam. But this prompted the two leader to ask as to how the government could ensure this.
The BJP leaders conveyed to Mukherjee that they were firm on their demand for a JPC probe and would not give it up.
"Government is primarily and constitutionally accountable only to Parliament. The best and only option in this case is a JPC probe," deputy leader of BJP in Rajya Sabha SS Ahluwalia said.
Meanwhile, speaker Meira Kumar was apparently keen to hold all-party meeting tomorrow at 4pm to find a way out of the Parliament impasse.
But since Swaraj and leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley will be away in Bhopal to attend a programme tomorrow to mark five years of Shivraj Singh Chouhan's tenure as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, the meeting had to be postponed. It may now be held late in the evening on Monday or on Tuesday morning.
BJP sources said, Advani and Ahluwalia are likely to lead the opposition charge in forcing adjournment of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively tomorrow over the JPC probe demand.
Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed rejected suggestions that some of the UPA allies were also in favour of a JPC probe.
"The reply of the government is reply of the UPA. It is the reply of every party which is in the government. Government has already said that a JPC probe is not required in the matter and let public accounts committee (PAC) first examine the matter. Congress stand is also the same that the matter should be allowed to be looked into by the PAC," Ahmed said.
Another senior Congress leader maintained that if the PAC feels that the matter needs further investigation then the argument can be taken further.
"It is better to face these disruptions in Parliament than be subjected to selective leaks and insinuation campaigns for two years by a JPC," the leader said.
He also suggested that the Parliamentary PAC should first go through the CAG report on 2G mobile bandwidth allocation and if it is not satisfied then other options can be explored.
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