2G: Pranab offers lunch again to Opposition but no JPC yet

On Monday too,both Houses of Parliament adjourned — first till noon and then for the day — after Opposition uproar over 2G.

The government tried faintly to fight it by raising allegations of corruption against BJP chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and demanded his resignation.

Monday’s lunch diplomacy was decided at a meeting by the Congress core committee on Sunday. Among those who attended it were Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,Congress chief Sonia Gandhi,Home Minister P Chidambaram,Defence Minister A K Antony and Mukherjee. The lunch is at 1 pm.

Last Tuesday too,Mukherjee had offered lunch for a solution to leaders of all parties but failed to come up with anything on how to end the daily stalemate at Parliament on the nature of the probe in the 2G spectrum scam.

All that Pranab Mukherjee told leaders was that he would get back to them after taking up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Opposition,on the other hand,has maintained that a PAC probe is inadequate. BJP leader Sushma Swaraj has said: “The PAC is a postmortem committee. It only discusses the CAG report paragraph by paragraph and mostly deals with the accounting aspect. It will not discuss how and why the PM’s advice on 2G spectrum was flouted or the misuse of power in allocations.”

Parliament failed to function for the seventh straight day today with Opposition remaining adamant on its demand for JPC probe in the 2G spectrum issue,while the Congress insisted on the sacking of Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa over corruption charges.

The logjam in Parliament persisted forcing adjournments of both Houses for the day without transacting any significant business as has been the case on all working days since the Winter Session began on November 9.

Chaotic scenes were witnessed in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha,where an unrelenting Opposition trooped to the well raising slogans demanding the setting up of a JPC to probe alleged irregularities in allocation of 2G spectrum,the conduct of the Commonwealth Games and the Adarsh housing scam in Mumbai.

Congress members countered the Opposition onslaught by rushing to the aisles demanding the resignation of Yeddyurappa in connection with the alleged irregularities in land allocations in the state favouring his sons.

They were also seen waving placards ‘Punish Yeddyurappa to protect Karnataka from mining mafia,land grabbers’,’Book Bellary Brothers’,’Sack Yeddyurappa’. All the while,the Opposition chanted: ‘We want JPC’ in the well.

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari adjourned the Question Hour minutes after both the Houses met for the day.

Deputy Speaker Karia Munda,who was in the chair,barely managed to get official reports placed before the Lok Sabha before adjourning the House for the day.

In the Rajya Sabha,official papers were placed before the House amid the din by opposition and Congress members.

Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan then adjourned the House till tomorrow.

The impasse in Parliament continued even after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s promise two days ago that action will be taken against anybody found guilty of any wrongdoing in 2G specturm allocation. Singh had appealed to political parties to allow Parliament to function.