New Delhi, November 28
With the government under pressure for getting pending financial bills for additional funding for food and infrastructure schemes approved by Parliament, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukerjee on Sunday made a fresh bid to end the stalemate in the two Houses over the Opposition’s demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe into the 2G spectrum scam.

The FM reached out to both Sushma Swaraj, leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, and LK Advani. He is learnt to have offered a discussion on the scam in Parliament and a CBI inquiry monitored by the Supreme Court. Earlier the government had suggested an inquiry by the Public Accounts Committee headed by BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi with the added assistance of investigating agencies.

Sushma Swaraj, who joined the micro-blogging website “Twitter” on November 25, used it on Sunday afternoon to say that she had turned down Mukerjee’s plea. The BJP leader tweeted, “Pranab Mukharji ( Mukherjee) spoke to me & Advaniji some time back and told that JPC was not possible. He 'appealed' that we give up our demand for JPC”.

“We told Pranab Mukherjee that we could not give up demand for JPC,” she went on to add.

BJP’s is unable to back out from its demand , partly because it has raised the demand to such a pitch that withdrawal would be a setback. Also, the party believes that a JPC would work out to its advantage and help it embarrass the government for a much longer period of time.

The parliament logjam during the winter session that began Nov 9 has stalled the legislative business of the government. It has put a question mark on the passage of major government bills, including one that seeks more money for government operations - some Rs 19,812 crore. These have been tabled in the Lok Sabha and once approved will go for ratification to the upper house, the Rajya Sabha. The Parliament’s winter session is to last till December 13.