AAP to oppose bill which makes Misra eligible to take up post

The AAP today said that it will oppose the bill introduced by the government in the Lok Sabha today to change the law for making the PM's Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra eligible for the post and said that such a move would undermine the role of regulators.
"The law cannot be changed for making an otherwise ineligible individual to take up a particular post, by first abusing the emergency powers of the government by bringing an ordinance, and then wasting the time of Parliament to suit the whims and fancies of an individual considered dear to the ruling establishment.
"It is shocking that the NDA government has overturned an amendment in the TRAI Act, which its own Atal Behari Vajpayee government had brought 14 years back," AAP said in a statement.

A senior party leader said that the party will oppose the measure as it will "destroy" the neutrality of the telecom regulator.
"The ordinance earlier issued in this connection was also unethical," the leader said.
BJP had issued a whip to its members to support the Bill.

Before the ordinance was promulgated, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act prohibited its chairman and members from taking up any other job in the central or state governments after demitting office.
The party said the Supreme Court has ruled that power to promulgate an ordinance is essentially a power to be used to meet an extraordinary situation and it cannot be allowed to be perverted to serve political ends and there was no emergency in passing the bill.

"Was it an extraordinary situation that the government couldn't wait for 15 days to bring a bill for discussion in Parliament?" the party asked.
AAP said that its opposition to the bill is based on the principle that the TRAI Act of 1997, which was amended in the year 2000, added strength to the impartiality and neutrality of the telecom regulator by making it clear that its chairperson and members will be ineligible from holding any government post in future. By seeking to do away with this provision, the NDA government is seriously undermining the role of regulators in the country.

"The provision to keep a two-year cooling off period before any individual who has been a TRAI chairperson or a member can take up a government assignment is merely a ploy to hoodwink the Parliament," the statement added.