BJP wants no confidence against Speaker on 2G scam debate

Many senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) including L K Advani want their party to move a no-confidence motion against Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar for not allowing a debate on the report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on 2G spectrum allocations on Monday.

Suggestion to bring the motion against Kumar in Lok Sabha comes after BJP leaders were disallowed to speak on the controversial JPC report. In the Rajya Sabha too, when the report was presented on Tuesday, BJP leaders were not allowed to speak.

“Many senior leaders (of the BJP) are agitated over the issue. The party will take a decision on whether any action (moving no-confidence motion) should be taken or not. As of now, Sushma Swaraj is on a visit to South Africa,” Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here on Tuesday.

He was replying to a question if there was a suggestion by some party MPs including Advani to move a no-confidence motion against Lok Sabha Speaker.

Swaraj is set to return on Wednesday after attending a memorial service in honour of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela.

The BJP indicated that the suggestion to move a no-confidence motion against Kumar will be discussed and a decision will be taken after Swaraj returns from South Africa.

A day after party leaders were disallowed to speak on the JPC report in the Lok Sabha, BJP members were up in arms in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday demanding the vice-chairman to give them a chance to speak on the report as it was tabled by Congress member Ananda Bhaskar Rapolu.

While Left party and Trinamool Congress MPs opposed the tabling of the controversial report in the Upper House, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien ruled that the “terms of reference” contained in the motion of the JPC had no provision to permit a discussion on its report adopted duly by the committee.

Prasad, who was a member of the 30-member JPC, raised a point of order to allege that his dissent note had been altered and wondered why the matter should not be debated in the House.