BJP endorses proposal for JPC on OoP

New Delhi, Aug 17: The Bharatiya Janata Party today threw its weight behind the government's proposal for setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to go into the issue of Office of Profit (OoP).

Talking to newspersons here, BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said the party had, in fact, put forth three suggestions -- a JPC to define Offices of Profit, one-time amnesty and MPs resign from such offices till the JPC submits its report -- at the very beginning when the controversy had broken out.

''Therefore we will support the move for setting up of a JPC,'' he said in reply to a question.

When pointed out that the party had demanded that the President seek the Supreme Court's advice on the issue if the Government sent back the bill in its original form, Mr Malhotra said they were nobody to give any suggestions to the President on this issue as he was free to take his own decision on the matter.

The BJP, he said, was in favour of one-time amnesty to the MPs holding such offices. But they should resign to give a free hand to the JPC to define OoP after which they could rejoin if the offices held by them did not fall into the category of OoP.

UNI