Govt must announce JPC on Feb 22, says BJP

Hours after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was not coming in the way of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G scam, the BJP insisted the JPC be announced on February 22 to enable the House to function normally.

The Budget session will start from February 21, with the Presidential Address to both Houses of Parliament.

During a meeting with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee this evening, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley told him that the BJP will not disrupt the Address if the Centre announced the JPC on February 22 morning.

“We have requested that the government announce formation of JPC on February 22, so that Parliament may resume functioning from that very day,” said Swaraj, soon after meeting Mukherjee.

Senior BJP leaders said they have told the government a JPC probe was needed to look into the corruption cases in the three scams and it was up to the Union government to decide.

“If the government does not announce a JPC probe which the Opposition has been demanding, then the proceedings will be obstructed,” said Swaraj. The meeting was also attended by Home Minister P Chidambaram, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

The BJP along with its NDA partners has been demanding a JPC to investigate corruption allegations in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, corruption cases in the Commonwealth Games and the Adarsh Housing Society. The winter session of the Parliament was completely washed out after the government refused to budge on the Opposition’s demand for a JPC.

The Centre has been making efforts to end the stalemates with Mukherjee calling for an all-party meeting on February 8 to discuss the issue. After the meeting, the Opposition parties had felt the government would buckle under pressure and allow the formation of a JPC.