Debate, don't disrupt

Opposition should learn from the 2G JPC fiasco

When Parliament met after a weeks-long recess on Monday, it slipped into a familiar pattern - the Opposition benches, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), vigorously confronted the government over various issues that had hit the headlines during the recess. Discussions were demanded on violence against women in Delhi, on the heckling of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee outside the headquarters of the Planning Commission, on the leaking of the draft report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on telecom policy to the media, on the draft report itself, and finally on whether the government influenced the Central Bureau of Investigation's report on coal mine allocations. The JPC's draft report, in particular, seems to have infuriated the Opposition as much as it has former telecom minister A Raja. The chances of "normal" business being conducted in this session do not appear high, although several major pieces of legislation that should not be further delayed - like the land acquisition Bill - are waiting to be passed. Given that one session has already been lost when the Opposition was demanding a JPC on 2G telecom allocations during Mr Raja's tenure, and that much of this session could be cut into as well, perhaps someone should try calculating what the "presumptive loss" to the Indian economy from the disruptive political response to 2G has been.

The Opposition is no doubt asking itself what, precisely, demanding a JPC has gained it. The bet taken at the time was that, although the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) then had a working majority in the Lok Sabha, the composition of the JPC would ensure that the Congress and its firm allies were in a minority. That was in fact the case - 12 out of 30 JPC members are from the Congress and its current allies. But an additional four members are from the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party - and, while the SP might not vote to bail out the UPA in this case, the BJP has discovered to its chagrin that its strategy is not foolproof, and depends on the mercurial Mulayam Singh Yadav. The draft report of the JPC, presided over by the Congress MP P C Chacko, cannot be described as a thorough or apolitical investigation; Mr Raja, for example, can justifiably claim it did not present his defence properly, in order to protect the prime minister. Worse, the draft report seeks to whitewash the various irregularities committed while deciding on the terms of allocating spectrum. Nor does it offer a clear explanation as to why the government chose to ignore views on auctioning spectrum and opted for a price that was fixed several years ago. Also, the Congress had earlier managed to expand the remit of the JPC from just the 2G allocations under the UPA to all policy, including that conducted by the BJP-led government between 1998 and 2004 - muddying the water considerably.

But it is possible the report might nevertheless pass muster, and exonerate the prime minister in the process - thus making the entire exercise, from the BJP's point of view, a waste of time. Instead of trying to make their case through an open debate and pin down the government's wrongdoing on the floor of Parliament, the Opposition has so far used disruptive tactics to fight from what it thinks is favourable ground. Only to discover that, as happens in politics, sure ground might have turned against it. This should serve as a lesson in the dangers of using disruption instead of open debate.