BJP says govt has more faith in CBI

JPC: Blasts Pranabs Maoist remark.

A war of words has broken out between Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Sushma Swaraj over the BJPs demand for a JPC probe into 2G spectrum allocation scam. A day after the Finance Minister accused the Opposition of having no faith in parliamentary democracy,the Leader of the Opposition on Sunday hit back charging the government with making parliamentary institutions redundant.

Does the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee amount to not having faith in parliamentary democracy and the Constitution? Swaraj asked. The truth is that the government has more faith in the courts and the CBI. It is the government that is making the parliamentary institutions redundant.

Swaraj said she was shocked to read the statement of Pranabda who happens to be Leader of the House in Lok Sabha. Mukherjee had on Saturday called the demand for JPC illogical and referring to the stalling of the winter session of Parliament pointed out that if the Opposition had no faith in parliamentary democracy,they should join the Maoists.

While the BJP stuck to its demand for a JPC probe,the Left made it clear that it wanted Parliaments forthcoming Budget session to function. Sources in the Left said it was not in favour of stalling yet another session and wanted to use it for discussing issues like price rise and the JPC demand.

Without giving up the demand for the JPC,we want Parliament to function to not only discuss the JPC demand but also other issues like price rise, senior CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta told The Indian Express. The Lefts declaration that it wants the House to function indicates a division in the Opposition ranks as the BJP has already signalled that the JPC demand could impact the budget session as well.

Senior CPM leader Basudev Acharia also told The Indian Express that the Left would not disrupt Parliament. We will place our demand,but we want the House to function. There are important issues to be discussed, he said.