No breakthrough on JPC

The year ended without any sign of a breakthrough in the parliamentary logjam over the government’s resistance to and the opposition’s insistence on a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum scandal.

The year ended without any sign of a breakthrough in the parliamentary logjam over the government’s resistance to and the opposition’s insistence on a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum scandal.

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However Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar’s two meetings that brought the government face to face first with the BJP on Thursday, and then with some other opposition leaders on Friday, saw all parties claiming they would like Parliament to function normally during the Budget session in February.

But this is possible only if one of the two sides backs down or an acceptable formula is hammered out. All parties agreed to continue with their efforts to find a way out of the impasse.

“The leaders met in a very cordial ... atmosphere and decided to ensure that the next session runs without interruption .... They decided that they will sit down together and find a solution,” Kumar said after the two-and-a-half hour meeting.

Earlier, the opposition had rejected the government’s offer of multidisciplinary agency assisting the public accounts committee in investigating the scandal and a special session to discuss whether or not there should be a JPC probe.