 "Govt faces test of political nerves")
The mood in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was sombre, following concerted attacks on it by the Opposition parties and some of its allies.
There were two broad developments on Thursday. One was regarding the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) which is supposed to be probing the telecom spectrum allocation controversy; as already reported, a report drafted for adoption which reflects the government's view has polarised views not only within the evenly divided JPC but among parties in general. This includes those the government considers its allies, such as the Samajwadi Party (SP).
The other was on the chit fund scam in Bengal, where a letter by Sudipta Sen, promoter of the Saradha group of companies at the centre of the developments to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), names Finance Minister P Chidambaram's wife, Nalini. The contents have created waves among MPs. Now under arrest on charges of cheating a mass of people, Sen claims that not only was she paid for consultancy in setting up a television channel for former journalist Manoranjana Sinh but her hotel bills were paid by Sen when she visited Kolkata.
On the JPC issue, the non-Congress opposition, including the SP which formally supports the government, joined hands against the Congress on the issue of the draft report. Because of the death of a Trinamool Congress MP, Ambika Banerjee, the government got a breather, with the postponement of the JPC meeting which was slated to decide whether to adopt this report or alternatives pushed by opponents. The meeting was postponed to next week.
However, Opposition parties' members did not let go. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members, along with those of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, met Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to demand removal of committee chairman P C Chacko. Chacko, a Congress member, was summoned to his party's core committee meeting, chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The tussle between the UPA and the Opposition in the JPC - which has 15 members from each grouping - looks set to get murky, with the Congress now demanding removal of BJP members Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Ravi Shankar Prasad from the JPC, as they were in the NDA government when the telecom rules being probed were framed.
Government sources say the demand for removal of the JPC chief is illegal, as he was appointed by Parliament, not by members of the committee. "It is a well established principle in law that only the authority that appoints can remove or dismiss. The demand for the removal of the chairman itself is illegal," said a top government source.
But battling its own allies has become a problem for the government. The SP issued a statement that if former telecom minister A Raja was not allowed to appear before the JPC, the party would oppose the draft report put before the panel. Although its delegates did not attend the meeting with the Speaker, they endorsed the demand that Chacko be removed.
The CPI(M) 's Sitaram Yechury, a JPC member, said: "My dissent note is ready and I will submit it at the meeting of the JPC when it is held next week. It is a detailed note which will give out the reasons why we disapprove the draft report, which is completely biased." He said they would demand that this dissent note be treated as the alternative report.
JPC members opposed to the government, led by the BJP, have held three discussions to strategise on how best they could get the draft report rejected when the panel meets to discuss it. The BJP and Left parties have demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram must appear before the JPC to answer the questions raised by former telecom minister A Raja in his 100-page letter to Chacko.
Saradha, other issues
As for the Bengal scam now hitting Nalini Chidambaram, sources close to her said she was Sinh's lawyer but on a Company Law Board matter concerning a dispute over assets between Sinh and her husband. According to these sources, Saradha chief Sudipta Sen wanted to buy Sinh's channel and sought Nalini Chidambaram's legal expertise. The lawyer charged Rs 1 crore for the 18-month project, on which tax was paid. However, the deal did not go through because Nalini Chidambaram advised her client (Sinh) strongly against it. "A lawyer drafting and advising between two parties is not legally or morally responsible for future transgressions of the two parties. Charging fees for professional services is not a crime," said a source close to Nalini Chidambaram.
The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has demanded an enquiry into the conduct of the finance minister and has hinted at favours done in return for the monetary advantage to his wife. The CPI (M) has already demanded a CBI enquiry to find how ordinary people's money was swindled. Without mentioning Nalini Chidambaram's name, the Trinamool Congress put up a series of questions on its official website under the headline 'Why was a Chennai lady lawyer fixing deals in the Saradha scam? Congress minister must clarify'.
Other threats to the government continue to lurk. Till late evening no information was available about what the CBI would say to the Supreme Court tomorrow about whether a minister or others in the government "directed" the status report it is to give to the court.
Ministers conceded the next one week is going to be a trying time for the government.
There were two broad developments on Thursday. One was regarding the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) which is supposed to be probing the telecom spectrum allocation controversy; as already reported, a report drafted for adoption which reflects the government's view has polarised views not only within the evenly divided JPC but among parties in general. This includes those the government considers its allies, such as the Samajwadi Party (SP).
The other was on the chit fund scam in Bengal, where a letter by Sudipta Sen, promoter of the Saradha group of companies at the centre of the developments to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), names Finance Minister P Chidambaram's wife, Nalini. The contents have created waves among MPs. Now under arrest on charges of cheating a mass of people, Sen claims that not only was she paid for consultancy in setting up a television channel for former journalist Manoranjana Sinh but her hotel bills were paid by Sen when she visited Kolkata.
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JPC
On the JPC issue, the non-Congress opposition, including the SP which formally supports the government, joined hands against the Congress on the issue of the draft report. Because of the death of a Trinamool Congress MP, Ambika Banerjee, the government got a breather, with the postponement of the JPC meeting which was slated to decide whether to adopt this report or alternatives pushed by opponents. The meeting was postponed to next week.
However, Opposition parties' members did not let go. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members, along with those of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, met Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to demand removal of committee chairman P C Chacko. Chacko, a Congress member, was summoned to his party's core committee meeting, chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The tussle between the UPA and the Opposition in the JPC - which has 15 members from each grouping - looks set to get murky, with the Congress now demanding removal of BJP members Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Ravi Shankar Prasad from the JPC, as they were in the NDA government when the telecom rules being probed were framed.
Government sources say the demand for removal of the JPC chief is illegal, as he was appointed by Parliament, not by members of the committee. "It is a well established principle in law that only the authority that appoints can remove or dismiss. The demand for the removal of the chairman itself is illegal," said a top government source.
But battling its own allies has become a problem for the government. The SP issued a statement that if former telecom minister A Raja was not allowed to appear before the JPC, the party would oppose the draft report put before the panel. Although its delegates did not attend the meeting with the Speaker, they endorsed the demand that Chacko be removed.
The CPI(M) 's Sitaram Yechury, a JPC member, said: "My dissent note is ready and I will submit it at the meeting of the JPC when it is held next week. It is a detailed note which will give out the reasons why we disapprove the draft report, which is completely biased." He said they would demand that this dissent note be treated as the alternative report.
JPC members opposed to the government, led by the BJP, have held three discussions to strategise on how best they could get the draft report rejected when the panel meets to discuss it. The BJP and Left parties have demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram must appear before the JPC to answer the questions raised by former telecom minister A Raja in his 100-page letter to Chacko.
Saradha, other issues
As for the Bengal scam now hitting Nalini Chidambaram, sources close to her said she was Sinh's lawyer but on a Company Law Board matter concerning a dispute over assets between Sinh and her husband. According to these sources, Saradha chief Sudipta Sen wanted to buy Sinh's channel and sought Nalini Chidambaram's legal expertise. The lawyer charged Rs 1 crore for the 18-month project, on which tax was paid. However, the deal did not go through because Nalini Chidambaram advised her client (Sinh) strongly against it. "A lawyer drafting and advising between two parties is not legally or morally responsible for future transgressions of the two parties. Charging fees for professional services is not a crime," said a source close to Nalini Chidambaram.
The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has demanded an enquiry into the conduct of the finance minister and has hinted at favours done in return for the monetary advantage to his wife. The CPI (M) has already demanded a CBI enquiry to find how ordinary people's money was swindled. Without mentioning Nalini Chidambaram's name, the Trinamool Congress put up a series of questions on its official website under the headline 'Why was a Chennai lady lawyer fixing deals in the Saradha scam? Congress minister must clarify'.
Other threats to the government continue to lurk. Till late evening no information was available about what the CBI would say to the Supreme Court tomorrow about whether a minister or others in the government "directed" the status report it is to give to the court.
Ministers conceded the next one week is going to be a trying time for the government.