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Congress firm on JPC probe into Guruswamy's allegations

Amid uproarious scenes in the Rajya Sabha, the Congress today reiterated its demand for setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee inquiry into the allegations levelled by Mohan Guruswamy, who was recently sacked as adviser to Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha.

Resuming the debate on the short duration discussion on the subject, Jitendra Prasada (Congress) said a JPC probe alone would unravel the mystery about the issues raised by Guruswamy.

''This government which came to power with the slogan of a party with a difference has become a party with differences,'' he said, drawing attention to Guruswamy's charge in newspaper interviews that different ministers were promoting the interests of different business groups.

However, there were frequent clashes between the Opposition members and those on the Treasury benches with Bharatiya Janata Party members wondering why Prasada was dragging the name of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee into the controversy.

The Congress member contended that the prime minister's name had also been mentioned by Guruswamy in his interviews to the media. ''The security of the nation is not safe in the hands of this government,'' Prasada said.

The BJP members objected, saying Prasada had no concrete evidence and was depending merely on media reports. This led to acrimonious exchanges between the members on the Congress benches, including Janardhan Poojary and H Hanumanthappa, and those on the BJP side like Venkaiah Naidu and T N Chaturvedi.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Krishan Kant asked Prasada to stick to the subject matter of the debate and not refer to any gossip outside the House. To this, Prasada said he was basing his argument on what had appeared in the media.

UNI

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