JPC upset Finance Ministry note wasn’t provided,wants explanation

Speaking to the media after the meeting,JPC chairman P C Chacko said members expressed their “strong displeasure” over the fact that the note,dated March 25,2011,was not supplied to the committee. They wanted the Finance Secretary and the Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs summoned to explain why had it not been made available to the committee. They got to see the note only after Chacko circulated it Monday.

Sources said BJP member S S Ahluwalia and CPI member Gurudas Dasgupta seemed inclined to stage a walk-out at the meeting. However,they held on after an intervention by CPM member Sitaram Yechury.

Yechury recalled that the Finance Secretary had submitted over 50 documents along with an index before the parliamentary panel. However,the note,he said was not part of the bunch.

Yechury said they needed to ascertain if it was a deliberate suppression of facts from the committee. If it was so,the panel could treat it as a breach of privilege.

The committee accepted Ahluwalia’s suggestion to keep aside its scheduled business till the Finance Secretary appeared before it. Therefore,the committee’s meeting,slated for Wednesday,was cancelled.

Chacko tried to downplay the suggestion that the “affidavits” being demanded was an extreme action. When told that the move was unprecedented,he shot back: “Let there be a healthy precedent…. We don’t want to grope in the dark.”

When asked if the JPC would summon Chidambaram,Chacko said,“There was no suggestion from members even today.” Sources,however,said BJP’s Yashwant Sinha had written to him demanding that the Home Minister be called.