Congress fills DMK’s JPC spot with nominated member

NEW DELHI: The government-Opposition face-off in the Joint Parliamentary Committee probing 2G spectrum allocation intensified with government filling a DMK vacancy in the panel with a nominated member, a move BJP dubbed was aimed at swinging the report in UPA’s favour by one vote.

A resolution appointing two members — P Bhattacharya of Congress and nominated member Ashok S Ganguly — to fill vacancies of a Congress and DMK member moved in Rajya Sabha on Thursday afternoon brought proceedings to a standstill.

The Opposition insisted that as per convention, positions should be filled with members from the same party to ensure “proportionate representation” in the committee. This is the first time that a nominated member has been included in a JPC.

An angry BJP is all set to seek the Chair’s ruling either withdrawing the resolution, which was passed by a voice vote amid the din, or stating that there is no problem in what the government has done.

“The election of a member to JPC through a resolution by voice vote would mean winner takes it all. By this logic, parliamentary committees would not have a representative character. What has happened in Rajya Sabha is unprecedented and would not be in the best interests of parliamentary democracy,” Jaitley told reporters later.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to make a statement on the economy on Friday. The food security bill, passed by Lok Sabha this week, is to come up in Rajya Sabha on Monday.

In the House, Minister of state for Parliamentary Affairs Rajeev Shukla had moved the motion regarding the appointments in the JPC, where there were two vacancies following retirement of DMK's Tiruchi Siva and resignation of Congress member EM Sudarsana Natchiappan from JPC.

There are 10 members from Rajya Sabha in the 30-member JPC headed by Congress’ PC Chacko. The Opposition had been gunning for Chacko saying he was behaving in a “partisan” manner.