Divergent views in Oppn on JPC probe in bank scams

Opposition parties  on Wednesday were not on the same page over the constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into bank scams.

The Left parties favoured  a JPC probe while the Trinamool Congress said it is a worthless exercise due to past experiences.

The divergent views emerged as the Congress last week indicated that it is not averse to the idea but would consult other opposition parties to  finalise  a joint strategy before announcing its decision.

Senior Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said his party has enough evidence to show that the JPC is not a solution on fixing responsibility in the bank fraud cases involving billionaire diamond merchant Nirav Modi or  Rotomac  promoter Vikram Kothari. He claimed none of the eight JPCs since 1987 had achieved any success.

The JPC report on Bofors in 1987 was rejected by the Opposition while one on Harshad Mehta scam in 1992 was not accepted, he said adding action was pending in Ketan Parikh scam report of 2001. Same was the case with 2003 report on pesticides in soft drinks. On the 2G scam report in 2010, O'Brien said 12-13 MPs gave dissent notes.

However, the CPM and the CPI were not in agreement with the TMC and demanded a JPC probe. The CPM Polit Bureau asked its units to  organise  nation-wide protests to  pressurise  the government to set up a JPC probe and publicise names of industrialists whose defaulted loans were waived off.

CPI National Secretary D Raja told DH, "there should be a two-prong approach. There should be strong legal action against offenders. Second is a JPC probe to  analyse  the loopholes in the system that allowed this scam to take place and the action taken in previous JPC reports on scams. It could probe why action was not taken."

In a statement, the CPM expressed grave concern at the alarming rise of crony capitalism in the Narendra Modi-led government.

"One after another chosen corporates, who have defrauded people's money and manipulated the system,  are allowed to leave the country before facing the law of the land," it said.

Rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav has also demanded a probe into the PNB scam by a Special Investigation Team under a Supreme Court judge.