Mukherjee to make another bid to break Parliament deadlock

New Delhi, Feb 6 (PTI) With Budget Session a fortnight
away, Indian Government begins a fresh exercise on Tuesday to
resolve the deadlock in Parliament on the issue of JPC into
the 2G scam that has seen the Left and the Right taking on the
UPA dispensation.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has convened a
meeting of leaders of political parties on February 8 in a
move to 'save' the three-month long Budget session after the
washout of the month-long Winter Session on the Joint
Parliamentary Committee demand.
The talk in political circles is that a resolution to
the deadlock in the meeting itself is unlikely and it could
require further consultations given the fact that the
opposition is adamant on the JPC while the ruling Congress is
against it.
Ahead of the meeting, Congress appeared soft on the
issue with party spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan recently
remarking that the party was "open" to discussing a
resolution which entails voting in Parliament on the issue of
JPC.
Her remarks assumed significance in the face of the
continuing government-opposition deadlock on the issue, in
spite of the arrest of former telecom minister A Raja.
Lok Sabha (Lower House) Speaker Meira Kumar has
convened a meeting of leaders of some of the political parties
Monday to ensure smooth functioning of the Budget Session
after the longest shutdown of Parliament in the Winter Session
on the JPC issue.
She has already held two such meetings including one
exclusively with the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party,
the main opposition party, and the government.
BJP-led National Democratic Alliance is sticking to
its demand for a JPC probe into the three scams related to 2G
spectrum allocation, Adarsh Housing Society and Commonwealth
Games preparations, and has accused the United Progressive
Alliance government of failing to give any "credible
reason" to the opposition to drop its demand.
"We stand by our demand. It continues...there is no
dilution," BJP Parliamentary Party Chairman L K Advani had
said last week after a meeting of NDA leaders here.
Asked whether the opposition would continue to disrupt
the proceedings of Parliament like it did during the winter
session, Advani said the strategy would be decided on the eve
of the Budget session beginning February 21.
At the meeting, NDA leaders decided to continue to
press for a JPC probe into the three scams during the meeting
with Mukherjee on Tuesday. Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary
Prakash Karat has also urged the government not to stand in
the way of a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the 2G
spectrum scam to ensure smooth functioning of Parliament in
its budget session.
He has said that his party would reiterate the demand
for setting up a JPC at the meeting of parties convened by
Finance Minister.
In a significant statement ahead of the Tuesday
meeting, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress party has said
they do not have a problem with a Joint Parliamentary
Committee (JPC) probe if Congress agrees to it.
"We have no objection to a JPC probe if the Congress
agrees to it," the Trinamool Congress, the second largest
party in the UPA after the Congress, said after a meeting of
the Railway Minister with Mukherjee.