NEW DELHI: The Congress is learnt to have conveyed to the government that the INDIA bloc will not be a part of the JPC set up to scrutinise the bills on automatic dismissal of jailed chief ministers and ministers, putting to an end questions over the issue.Sources said a senior Congress neta and MP had spoken to a key minister about the opposition’s stance. The parliamentary panel is set to be a much-watched platform given that the three bills on the issue, moved by home minister Amit Shah in the monsoon session of Parliament, had triggered bedlam in the Lok Sabha, with the opposition bloc opposing them vehemently.The government has not been able to constitute the JPC despite the passage of nearly two months since the Lok Sabha’s decision to send the three bills to the parliamentary panel.Sources said the government had conveyed last week its intent to go ahead with the JPC, holding that if the opposition parties boycotted the panel, it would fill the vacancies with representatives of smaller outfits and independents. The message was sent to the Congress interlocutors as the opposition had been dragging its feet on names for the panel despite repeated reminders.The sole holdout, CPM, also gave its nod to the boycott on Monday after Congress reached out to persuade the Left ally. CPM MP John Brittas told TOI, “We are for opposition unity. In that spirit, we are with other opposition parties on the issue of JPC.”While major anti-BJP parties headed by Congress were earlier keen to join the JPC, an uncompromising Trinamool Congress queered the pitch for the INDIA bloc by announcing in Aug that it would boycott the panel. It then drew support from SP, AAP and Shiv Sena. They argued that parliamentary panels were being used by the Modi government to bulldoze bills without considering the views of the opposition, citing the example of the Waqf Bill. The upfront announcement by key allies put Congress in a bind as it did not want to come across as breaking “opposition unity” for a legislation which anyway was jointly opposed by INDIA bloc. DMK, NCP and CPM, its allies, were waiting for Congress to make a decision on the issue.
