Congress again dismisses Opposition demand for JPC

New Delhi, Sep 5 (UNI) The Congress today came down heavily on the BJP-led Opposition for disrupting Parliament demanding institution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to look into the Indo-US Nuclear deal, and said such a demand is "unheard of and unprecedented" in the political and constituitional history of India.

"Any demand should have basis in law, convention and established procedure," Party Spokesman Abishek Manu Singhvi told mediapersons, while underlining that "never in the history of the country had an international treaty been subjected to scrutiny by a Parliamentary committee." In this context, he accused the Opposition of "finding excuses to disrupt the proceedings of the Parliament and create confusion on a matter of national importance." Dr Singhvi said the Opposition today disrupted the proceedings in both houses so as to avoid their participation in the scheduled debate on the Action Taken Report (ATR) on the Sachar Committee recommendations on the backwardness of Muslims.

"Why should they run away from debate on such important subjects as Sachar Committee ?" he asked, while pointing out that the Opposition had been adopting disruptive practices on one pretext or or the other, thereby avoiding debates on important national issues.

In this context, Dr Singhvi pointed out that the Manmohan Singh government had already taken action on 14 specific issues highlighted by the Sachar Committee, which includes sorry state of affairs of a large section of Muslims in education and their social backwardness.

"The figure of Muslims facing backwardness was striking and it should make everyone rise above politics." Asked why the Opposition was not included on a committee to go into the Indo-US deal, Dr Singhvi said the UPA-Left committee was not a government committee. "This is an internal group of the UPA and supporting parties." "There is no question of any all party committee or meeting...The UPA-Left committee was constituted to address certain issues raised by our supporting units," he said, adding the Opposition was "interfering in this issue only to create confusion." Asked why the Congress and the other UPA partners had nominated only their ministers rather than party functionaries, on the 15-member UPA-Left committee, Dr Singhvi said "each of the ministers is representing their political party." UNI