M A I N   N E W S

Volcker report debate on Monday likely
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 25
The contentious Volcker Committee report on oil-for-food scam could be taken up for discussion on Monday, with the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today rejecting the Opposition-moved adjournment motion.

The House has already admitted a motion under Rule 184, which involves voting, to discuss the Volcker findings.

Proceedings in both Houses were stalled by the NDA-led Opposition demanding the resignation of Mr Natwar Singh and Ms Sonia Gandhi as National Advisory Council chairperson and raising the Bofors controversy slogans of the Rajiv Gandhi era.

Opposition members, who trooped into the well of the House despite repeated pleas from the Speaker, raised slogans like ‘Gali gali mein shor hai, Sonia Gandhi chor hai!’ and ‘Istifa do, Istifa do!’ The Treasury bench members countered them: ‘BJP sharam karo, BJP bahar jao! Sansad ko chalne do!’

While the Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day after uproarious scenes over the BJP’s demand for the resignation of the Congress President and Mr Natwar Singh, the Lok Sabha witnessed two suspensions on the issue with the Speaker announcing that the House will take up private members’ business.

After his repeated attempts to restore order went unheeded, the Speaker said, “I am very sorry to say that the House is being held to ransom by some honourable members who have been elected to the House to perform as responsible members.”

Rejecting the notices for adjournment motions on the Volcker Committee report, Mitrokhin Archives and former US envoy Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s book on alleged payoffs to the Congress and its leaders, the Speaker ruled that these did not relate to the Union Government, nor were they matters of recent occurrence.

The notices given by BJP Deputy Leader V.K. Malhotra, NDA Convener George Fernandes and five others also “do not refer to one specific issue and there does not appear to be any direct responsibility of the government in the matter”, Mr Chatterjee said in his ruling.

He said the Lok Sabha rules also made it clear that any motion, which seeks to raise a matter before any statutory body, commission or court of inquiry, would not be ordinarily permitted

The Speaker noted that the government had set up an inquiry authority headed by the former Chief Justice of India, Justice R.S. Pathak, to probe the findings of the Volcker report.

“As the notices relate to more than one matter and even then not very definite, and do not justify adjourning all other business in the House for immediate discussion and further do not relate to a matter for which the Union government is responsible, over and above not being matters of recent occurrence, under the rules, notices are not eligible for admission by the Chair,” he observed.

The Speaker said he had already admitted a notice of a motion under Rule 184 by Mr Malhotra and his BJP colleague Santosh Gangwar, which entailed voting, on the Volcker findings.

“As the motion under Rule 184 is already in the list and is to be taken up immediately after the question hour or laying the papers and other matters, I do not admit the notices for adjournment motion,” he ruled.

After the Speaker rejecting the adjournment motion, the Opposition allowed the government to table the papers listed for Friday but did not let Home Minister Shivraj Patil to make a statement on terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir and Maoist attacks in Jehanabad in Bihar as well as Giridih in Jharkhand.

Earlier, Mr P. Ravindran, the newly elected Left MP from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, took oath in the Lok Sabha.