Parliament & Joint Parliament Committee

       Last year winter session of Parliament goes into the history books with record time lost as it had total twenty three days but during twenty two days of parliament proceedings no work held because of walk out by opposition parties on to the issue of 2G spectrum scam by former Union Telecommunication Minister A. Raja, who supersede all the rule of books in allotments of 2G spectrum thus loss the nation of almost 1.76 trillion rupees, despite he tender his resignation during proceedings of winter session of parliaments but opposition parties were not satisfied with his resignation and declared until and unless Joint Parliament Committee(JPC) does not constitute, it won’t allow parliaments to run, but government want everything discuss in parliament houses’, thus differences between ruling alliance parties and opposition alliance parties ends parliament session with only one day of working. Later on opposition parties announced in the media they won’t compromise less then JPC on 2G spectrum scam and will drag there demand even during budget session of parliament, this bend government to do efforts to end stalemate by constituting JPC and one week before the start of budget session it announce JPC will constitute on to the scam of A. Raja. Now budget session of parliament is under way, on 24rth February, 2011 JPC constitutes for the fifth time in the history of parliament. It contains thirty members, but contemplating point here is if it will solve its purpose –

• If Government is bound to accept the recommendations of committee?
• If accused of 2G spectrum will ever be arrested?
• If Government will be able to recover the lost money from them?

Its answer is no, yes in spite of the fact if JPC reaches the bottom of the scam, it wont bend government to accept its proposal but only can advise direction in this regards on to basis of its report, as previous four JPC’s did not solve the purpose other then meetings and report, brief information relating to four JPC’s are –

• On 6th August,1987 first JPC was constituted, which was formed to probe into the Bofors deal under the chairmanship of V. Shankaranand, JPC had fifty numbers of meetings, but it was not accepted by opposition parties because as per there belief it contains scores of members belong to the Indian National Congress, thus it mere proves formality on to the name of JPC, and even at the time of presentation opposition boycott it.
• Second JPC was constituted under the chairmanship of Ram Niwas Mirdha, who was Indian National Congress leader, for the probe relating to irregularities by Harshad Mehta’s security and banking transactions, after the scam sensex crashed almost five hundred points, and JPC’s proposal was neither accepted nor implemented in its full form.
• Third JPC was formed on to the issue of discrepancies by Ketan Parikh, siphon off money from share market after revelations made by Ahmedabad’s cooperative Madhabpura Merctile Bank, it was formed on 26th April,2001 and it submitted its report on 19th December,2002, under the chairmanship of Prakash Nayyer Tripathi, after having meetings one hundred and five times, but JPC proposal was not accepted by government in its original form and after some changes in the recommendations made by committee, it was implemented.
• Fourth JPC was constituted in the year 2003, under the chairmanship of Sharad Pawar, on to the issue of chemicals presence in the soft drinks and to set safety standards, JPC reports reveal that soft drinks contains chemicals and propose strict standards for soft drinks, but again as per JPC’s previous experiences’ , on its recommendations nothing concrete action was taken.

Question rises here if JPC does not has the power to make government accept its proposal in original form, then what is the necessity and utility of constituting a JPC? Accepted JPC reports comes up with facts but if it does not apply on government to accept its recommendations, then certainly authenticity of JPC is dubious.