Fishing in troubled waters

In the News - Supreme Court quashes Thomas’s appointment

 

 

The government has conceded a JPC (joint parliamentary committee) to inquire into the 2G Spectrum scam from when the NDA took office in 1998 onwards. This is a mistake. Though hailed by the Opposition, Parliament — and the country at large — might live to rue the day it succumbed to inglorious coercive tactics that denigrate the supremacy of due process and debate in a democracy.

All debate in Parliament was frustrated, even on the 2G Spectrum scam, until the government conceded a JPC probe. This, despite the fact that the Public Accounts Committee was seized of the CAG’s report and special inputs had been sought in this regard from Shungloo, a former CAG, on procedures, Justice Shivraj Patil on policies and the Enforcement Directorate on criminality apart from a Supreme Court-monitored special investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Further, the PM had expressed willingness to appear before the PAC while the government was prepared to face Parliament and answer all questions and criticism levelled against it.

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