Author: Editorials
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: December 6, 2010
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/move-on/720892/0
Introduction: Government must take a good
look at what is being lost in this legislative limbo.
The winter session of Parliament has been
a thorough washout, with the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha functioning for only
a few hours each in the first 12 days. The opposition, in its "crusade
against corruption", has set up an empty chant for a joint parliamentary
committee (JPC) to investigate the telecom scandal, and refuses to let any
legislative work proceed until then. The government is determined to avoid
that at all costs, because it knows that hard math will render it a minority
in any committee, which leaves it vulnerable to its allies' whims and the
opposition's grilling.
Parliamentary work, apart from what is transacted
on the floor, also moves through committees - there are standard departmental
committees to study bills, the operation of various ministries, the demand
for grants, etc. Others look into petitions and questions of financial oversight,
rules and standards, etc. However, the opposition holds that the public accounts
committee (PAC) is not good enough to probe the 2G spectrum allocation swindle.
The government is equally adamant that a JPC would be futile, would only duplicate
the work that the PAC has already been assigned to handle. It argues that
the PAC comes with formality and precedent, while a JPC could inevitably be
taken over by political grandstanding. It is certainly the case that such
ad hoc investigative committees constituted to look into matters of pressing
national import have not produced dramatic results in the past. (Four JPCs
have been set up so far, to look into the Bofors issue, the two stock market
scams of 1992 and 2001, and the question of pesticide traces in colas.) There
is, at present, precious little to suggest that a JPC into the telecom matter
would yield any more spectacular results.
However, this tug of war has gone on too long,
and cost the nation too much. Even if the JPC is a feeble instrument and may
not go anywhere, the UPA must realise that this parliamentary deep freeze
is destructive. Its slender numbers (especially in the Rajya Sabha) notwithstanding,
the government must reach out to the opposition and work out a solution, even
if it involves a JPC. It has three-and-a-half years of its term left, and
must surely see that this legislative limbo is untenable.
