Discussion on electoral reforms, especially on proportional representation versus first-past-the-post system that was being pursued by the Parliamentary panel on Law and Justice, has been dropped, as the newly constituted committee under the chairmanship of BJP leader Bhupender Yadav meets on Monday.
The Congress had bitterly protested against the reconstitution of parliamentary committees. Congress leader Anand Sharma was unceremoniously dropped from the chairman’s post of the panel on Personal, Public Grievances, Law and Justice and shifted to the Parliamentary Panel of Science & Technology, Environment and Forest.
After exchanging at least two letters with the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar, the Congress, according to sources, once again conveyed to Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu this week that it would not accept the decision. It has also told him that Mr. Sharma will not convene the meeting of the panel on Science & Technology, Environment till the matter was resolved.
It is not yet clear whether deliberations on electoral reforms where views of all political parties were sought on all aspects from the system of election to funding to campaigning will be taken to its logical conclusion. Interestingly, the majority of Opposition parties had recommended that a hybrid system where both first-past-the-post system and proportional representation be followed in the country. The BJP was the only party not to either answer the questionnaire sent by the panel or send in their representative to present its view.
‘Arbitrary decision’
Substantial progress had been made in the report, Mr. Sharma said. “For partisan reasons they have taken this arbitrary decision. It is Congress’s discretion to change leadership of the parliamentary committees allotted to them and not the government,” he added.
Protesting against the change, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, wrote to the Parliamentary Affairs Minister. In his reply, Mr. Ananth Kumar justified the move, saying that when the UPA was in power, the Congress was handling the panel on Law and Justice. Now that the NDA was in power, it had been rightly handed over to the BJP, he said.
“The question is not of ruling or Opposition, the committee chairmanships are decided by the strength in the House,” Mr. Sharma said.