Govt offers special session of Parliament to discuss 2G scam, JPC demand

With the opposition remaining adamant on joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the second generation mobile telephony scam, government today offered to convene a special session of Parliament to discuss whether to set up such a committee.

"If they (the opposition) assure that there will be a debate, I am ready to call a special session of Parliament before the Budget session so that this issue (setting up of a JPC) is debated," finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said at the CNN-IBN award function.

He said the opposition should discuss the issue on the floor of Parliament and "not destroy the institution itself".

Mukherjee was responding when asked to comment on a remark by BJP president Nitin Gadkari that his party is ready to cooperate with the government in the Budget session but only on the condition that the ruling alliance appoint a JPC.

The government's offer is believed to be aimed at ending the stand-off with the opposition over the JPC issue so that the Budget session does not go same way as the Winter session of Parliament which was completely washed out.

The government has maintained that it JPC was not necessary to look into the 2G mobile spectrum allocation and the task could be performed by the Parliament's public accounts committee (PAC).

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has even offered to appear before the PAC.

However, the opposition has been adamant on JPC probe, arguing that PAC had a limited mandate and could not probe aspects beyond auditing.