BJP to force govt to set up JPC on N-deal

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which stalled Parliament over its demands for setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Indo-US nuclear deal, on Thursday claimed it will be able to get the panel constituted.

"We will get it done," senior party leader Sushma Swaraj told media persons as she recalled that Joint Parliamentary Committees were set up on the Bofors deal and the security scam after initial refusal by then government.

NDA leaders, she said, will meet again on Friday to chalk out their strategy after their high-pitched demands in both the Houses on Thursday for a JPC on the 123 agreement.

Senior BJP leader L K Advani met National Democratic Alliance MPs earlier in the day after his party decided to press demands for a JPC and voting in Parliament on the nuclear accord.

"Nothing is categorical in Parliament. It is a war of nerves," Swaraj remarked when reminded about the government's rejection of the NDA's call.

"We do not consider (the government's response) to be categorical," she said.

Swaraj said the BJP has asked the government to spell out what objections it could have in setting up a JPC on the nuclear accord.

"What they have set up is a family welfare committee while we want a national welfare committee on the deal," Swaraj said, referring to the constitution of a UPA-Left panel to examine the Communists' objections to the 123 agreement.

She accused the government of insulting the Opposition by creating a panel involving the Congress and its Left supporters alone.

"It is contempt of Parliament and insult of the Opposition," Swaraj said, insisting that the NDA had been neglected altogether in the move to constitute the panel over the objections of the Left supporters of the government.

The UPA and the Left, she said, already have a coordination committee to discuss mutual issues.
 
"They have other mechanisms -- such as the prime minister can invite them (Left leaders) to dinner -- which are not available to us," Swaraj, who rejected the move to hold a debate in Parliament without voting as a 'trap' and as an attempt to scuttle JPC demands, said.