Enough talk,set up JPC: BJP rejects UPA offer

2G: First cracks in Opposition with SP saying PM should meet us midway.

The BJP today rejected Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjees offer of a special session of Parliament to discuss setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the 2G spectrum scam,saying that it has already had enough discussions over it during the last two months.

The demand of the opposition is a JPC. We are not saying that we want a discussion on whether there should be a JPC or not. We have had a lot of discussion on it and also on 2G spectrum scam in the last two months, said Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha and BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley in Jammu.

There had also been a three-day long discussion on 2G spectrum scam for the first time in the Rajya Sabha on July 23,2009,he said.

Said Jaitley: We do not want merely a session where it is talked out but we want action by the government. And action by government is the appointment of a JPC.

Pointing out that the party is not going to compromise over its stand,he said that the government has to appoint a JPC if it wants the House to function.

We do not want any debate. We want an inquiry. The government should form a JPC to probe it (2G scam), Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said in Jammu. This was echoed by CPMs Brinda Karat: We have had already four discussions in Parliament during which we had demanded a JPC…What is new in this so-called offer? Moreover,this so-called offer given at an award-giving function shows the utter non-seriousness of this government on this issue. Meanwhile,the first cracks in the Oppositions unity on the JPC issue came today with the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP),the third-largest party in the Lok Sabha,requesting the government to find a mid-way to break the deadlock in Parliament.

Speaking to The Indian Express,senior SP leader Mohan Singh that this should be done at the level of the Prime Minister while maintaining the dignity of Opposition.

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Significantly,the SP had slammed the Government on the 2g scam and has so far been attacking the Congress-led UPA unlike its rival from Uttar Pradesh,the 21-Lok Sabha member BSP,that has kept an ambivalent stance on the issue.

The Prime Minister should talk directly to the Opposition in place of talking to the Opposition through media or interlocutors. One must remember,Prime Minister has so far not spoken to the Opposition to break the deadlock in the Parliament, Mohan Singh said.

It (Pranab Mukherjees proposal for a special session to discuss a JPC) is just a jugglery of words. Is he going to deviate from what Congress plenary thunderously rejected a few days ago? It is part of their design to corner the Opposition by projecting us as obstructionist, he said.