NDA lifts boycott of parliamentary panels

Remarks of Pranab, malhotra to be expunged

The long stalemate over the boycott of the parliamentary standing committees by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parties has ended.

The compromise worked out to break the deadlock between the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the NDA was the withdrawal of a recorded condemnation of the Opposition by Leader of the House Lok Sabha), Pranab Mukherjee, and remarks made against the Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Deputy Leader in Parliament, Vijay Kumar Malhotra.

Earlier, the Leader of the Opposition, L K Advani, met Chatterjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday to work out the formula. A formal seal of approval to the formula was granted after the NDA meeting in the evening.

"The NDA has agreed to end the stalemate and join the (parliamentary) committees from tomorrow or whenever they meet," Advani told reporters later after an hour-long meeting.

The modalities of the withdrawal of the controversial statements of Mukherjee and Malhotra will be gone through in the Lok Sabha, when the Budget session resumes on August 16.

Advani said Malhotra and Sushma Swaraj would discuss the formalities with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad tomorrow. Who will withdraw the remarks first""Mukherjee or Malhotra""will be decided only after Parliament meets.

Advani said the NDA took the decision after the top UPA leaders and himself reached an agreement that Mukherjee's statement in the Lok Sabha on July 23 condemning the Opposition be withdrawn.

"But even before the formalities can be carried out, we have decided that the NDA should join the (parliamentary) committees so that they function," he said.

Advani said the Speaker had wanted the Opposition to participate in the meetings of the standing committees so that these could discuss Budget proposals and for this he had invited him for talks.

Expressing satisfaction over the Opposition decision to end the boycott, Azad said "the committees will be formed in 24 hours and begin work in the next three to four days working overtime to complete the exercise. I am sure they will complete the task ahead of schedule."

He said a "peculiar situation" had arisen in the wake of the Opposition boycott as "it was a condemnation of Parliament and should not have been done. But, all is well that ends well."

Azad said the Congress had given its list of members to the Speaker last week and to the Rajya Sabha Chairman on Tuesday.

The formula for breaking the deadlock was in the works for some time. But Singh's trip to Bangkok, the absence of Chatterjee from Delhi, and the BJP's chintan baithak in Goa were factors in the delay.

Sources in the BJP said the party leadership, although upset over Mukherjee's remark, also acknowledged that Malhotra's remark that the Speaker should "stop sermonising and allow the Leader of the Opposition to speak" was not in good taste.

"We were angry that Singh was not making a statement on the absconding Shibu Soren, and so it must have slipped out," said a senior BJP leader.

With more than a week of the three-week parliamentary recess having passed, the committees will have to work harder and longer on the budgetary allocations.

According to BJP sources, the party has decided on its nominees for membership to various panels. "We will send them in a day," said a senior BJP leader.

The NDA meeting was attended by leaders of all major constituents including George Fernandes, Sharad Yadav, Nitish Kumar (all Janata Dal-U), Parkash Singh Badal (Shiromani Akali Dal), Arvind Trivedi (Trinamool Congress) and Sanjay Nirupam (Shiv Sena).

The NDA has allocation of three of the eight members in the standing committees of the Rajya Sabha and six out of 16 in the Lok Sabha.