Report on 2G scam, women's safety to rock Budget Session

The second half of Parliament’s budget session, resuming on Monday, is likely to be stormy with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) set to corner the government over a controversial report of the joint parliamentary committee on 2G spectrum allocations and the alleged coal scam.

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government may also have to face heat on the floors of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha again on the issue of the safety of women, as the principal Opposition party has decided to raise the recent incident of rape of a five-year-old girl in Delhi.

The BJP is ‘outraged’ over the draft JPC report that has accused former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of being directly involved in decisions taken ‘in haste’ in the allocation of 2G spectrum causing a loss of revenue to the tune of Rs. 42,080.34 crores.

As the panel, on the other hand, disputed the 2G spectrum allocation loss figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore projected by the national auditor and gave clean chit to Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram in the case, the principal Opposition and its allies want to know how the JPC exonerated the prime minister and the finance minister without examining them.

To rake up these issues in Parliament, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) gave a notice on Sunday, appealing to all the members of the JPC to reject the draft report ‘in toto.’

The NDA’s top brass also held a meeting at the residence of its working president L K Advani to discuss its strategy for the second phase of Parliament's budget session.

“The NDA, collectively and with one voice, totally condemns the manner in which the JPC draft, as per accounts, is charging the former prime minister and the present convener of NDA, A B Vajpayee, with knowingly having caused losses to the exchequer,” the NDA said in a statement after the meeting.

The BJP-led coalition described the JPC’s clean chit to the prime minister as “an act of unmatched perfidy,” accusing Singh of being responsible for the problems that the country was facing.

Ansari wants unruly MPs suspended

Seeking to ensure a smooth Session, Rajya Sabha chairman M Hamid Ansari on Sunday suggested incorporation of a rule for automatic suspension of members for creating grave disorder and deferment of live telecast of the proceedings but members did not agree on such measures, reports DHNS.