O’Brien claimed that in almost every JPC, there is no consensus on the final report. “Whenever important amendments are proposed by an opposition MP, the amendments are defeated in the committee by a show of hands. The ruling party uses its brute majority to do this,” he alleged.
The TMC leader added that instead of coming to the committee meetings with an open mind, MPs representing the treasury benches rubber-stamp the views of the ruling party. He said the opposition members with an alternative view are outvoted. “The only recourse left is to table a dissenting note — for the record,” he noted.
Citing past examples, O’Brien mentioned the JPC report on the Bofors case of 1987, which was boycotted by the opposition as the committee was packed with members of the ruling party.
“Joint Parliamentary Committees (JPCs) were originally conceived as democratic and well-intentioned mechanisms, established through motions passed by both Houses of Parliament and endowed with exceptional powers, such as summoning witnesses, demanding documents, and examining experts,” he said.
“However, this purpose has eroded significantly post-2014, with JPCs increasingly being manipulated by the government in power. Now, in the same committee which represents public accountability, procedures are bypassed, opposition amendments rejected, and meaningful debate replaced by partisan fluff,” the TMC leader said.
“The Modi coalition pushing to form this JPC to examine an ‘unconstitutional bill’ is a stunt performed to create a distraction from Special Intensive Revision (SIR — vote chori). Someone needed to call a stunt a stunt. I am glad we did,” he added.
The bills introduced just before the conclusion of the Monsoon session of Parliament sent the opposition up in arms.
Tempers flared in the Lok Sabha, copies of the bills were torn and flung, and members of the ruling and opposition alliances came face to face when Union Home Minister Amit Shah moved to introduce the bills.
TMC MPs charged towards Shah when he introduced the three draft laws.
Both houses have passed a resolution to refer the bills to a JPC comprising 21 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha.
The committee has been mandated to submit its report to the House in the Winter session, which is likely to be convened in the third week of November.
