Make Dasgupta a Minister: Speaker

New Delhi, July 28 (UNI) There were sparks of wit and humour in the Lok Sabha today even as the Left members and Finance Minister P Chidambaram sparred over a proposal for allowing public sector banks to outsource their non-core operations.

''You make him (Mr Gurudas Dasgupta) a Minister, then he will realise,'' Speaker Somnath Chatterjee remarked after Mr Chidambaram said he did not mind the CPI leader becoming Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance.

It all started with Mr Dasgupta, who had raised a calling attention on the outsourcing issue, stating that Mr Chidambaram had supporters from the BJP benches for the proposal, which he said was aimed at privatisation of banks through the back-door.

In his reply, Mr Chidambaram said he was happy that Maj Gen B C Khanduri, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, was present in the House.

At this, Mr Dasgupta said the Minister's remark confirmed his point that there was an understanding between Mr Chidambaram and the principal opposition.

Not to be outwitted, Mr Chidambaram said ''I don't mind if you become the Chairman of the Standing Committee.'' As is his wont, the Speaker butted in, stating that ''You make him a Minister, then he will realise,'' much to the amusement of the House.

Earlier, Mr Chatterjee had remarked that Mr Dasgupta had levelled allegations against Mr Chidambaram instead of seeking clarifications which was the normal practice after Ministers' make statements in response to calling attention motions.

Concluding his observations, Mr Dasgupta said today there was a strike by bank employees to protest against the government move and there ''will be more strikes (by them) and uproar in Parliament'' if the proposal was carried out.

''You have issued a threat in the name of a question,'' the Speaker told the member.

Mr Dasgupta said the outsourcing proposal would take away 60 per cent of the banking operations from the public sector banks and result in indirect privatisation.

However, Mr Chidambaram said the proposal was only part of draft guidelines issued by the RBI and the actual functions that would be outsourced would be decided by the regulator after getting the views of the banks and others involved in the system.

There was no move to even dilute the functions of the public sector banks, let alone privatisation either through the back door or the front door, the Minister asserted.

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