BJP keeps aloof as process to set up JPC starts

The process of constitution of the JPC on the VVIP chopper deal was initiated in the Lok Sabha today but BJP gave indications that it is unlikely to be a part of it.
Lok Sabha Secretary General T K Vishwanathan read out a message from the Rajya Sabha for appointing 20 members to JPC which will probe the alleged financial irregularities in the USD 3,600-crore helicopter deal with Italian company Augusta Westland.
Seven of the 10 members from the Rajya Sabha to the Joint Parliamentary Committee have already been named.
The JPC will have to submit a report within three months of its first sitting.

Meanwhile, BJP today indicated that it is not likely to be a part of this JPC, alleging that Congress is using it as a "shield", a charge the ruling party denied.
"In the helicopter scam the Congress has made the JPC a shield. No FIR has been lodged in the case yet. Earlier the Congress was never ready to form a JPC (on the 2G spectrum issue). But this time it has readily agreed," BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said.

He alleged that "tongue power" is more visible in the JPC on the 2G spectrum issue. He charged that the parliamentary body is being used to sweep issues under the carpet and the voice of the opposition is being muffled. He said the government is "finding ways of bypassing the JPC".

Congress countered this allegation and hit out at the BJP. "They should have thought about this worthlessness of the JPC one year back. They should have thought it before washout of a Parliament session," P C Chacko, Chairman of JPC on 2G, said.
"Government was forced to constitute the JPC then as they insisted that the JPC is the ultimate solution. This shows inconsistency in their approach," he said.