CPM for smooth conduct of Budget session of Parliament

It, however, said it would not budge from its principal demand for the constitution of a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum scam.

“We’ve discussed the matter within the party (in the Politburo) and decided to stick to our demand on JPC. But at the same time, we also want Parliament to function,” CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said here.

Karat explained that the party has decided to “talk to all other secular opposition parties we have been cooperationg with  and decide a common approach within these two parameters. We will try to work it out with secular opposition parties.”

Indicating that the exercise to “build a bridge with the secular opposition parties” in this regard will be launched before the parliament meets sometime around middle of next month, he said the logjam over appearance of the prime minister before a JPC or Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is more of a political nature.

“I have been told that PAC doesn’t have been any provision of having any minister appearing before it apart from saying that he wants to appear. I think it’s more of a political gesture. It is better that he (the prime minister) appears before the JPC rather than the PAC.”

The opposition has, in fact, been relentlessly demanding setting up of a JPC to probe the irregularities in the allocation of the 2G spectrum scam. The government has rejected the demand which prompted the opposition to boycott the entire winter session last year.
Karat who blamed the Maoists and the Trinamool Congress for the current spate of violence in Bengal took strong umbrage at the Election Commission decision of dispatching a six-member team headed by the Bihar chief electoral officer Sudhir K Rakesh for an on-the-spot survey of the law and order in West Bengal.