NEW DELHI: Registering a strong protest, All India Trinamool Congress has decided not to nominate any of its members to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to be set-up to to examine the controversial bills that provide for removal of Prime Minister, chief ministers and ministers arrested for 30 days, calling the committee a ‘farce’. The TMC also said that Samajwadi Party too will not be part of the committee. The Constitution (One Hundred And Thirtieth Amendment) Bill 2025, the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill 2025, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2025, were introduced in Lok Sabha on Wednesday and referred to a JPC for scrutiny.”We oppose the 130th constitution amendment Bill at the stage of introduction, and in our view the JPC is a farce. Therefore, we are not nominating anyone from the All India Trinamool Congress,” the TMC announced in an official statement issued by the office of national general secretary and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday.Later TMC leader and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’ Brien in a blog post titled “Modi-Shah Have Turned Parliament JPCs into stunts” said, “the AITC and Samajwadi Party (SP), the second largest opposition parties in Parliament, have decided not to nominate any of its members to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) being proposed to examine the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, calling the committee a ‘farce’”. “The Modi coalition pushing to form this JPC to examine an ‘unconstitutional bill’ is a stunt performed to create a distraction from Special Intensive Revision (SIR – vote chori). Someone needed to call a stunt a stunt. I am glad we did,” he said.The TMC leader went on to share the reasons why they think JPCs are an exercise in futility. “The chairperson of the JPC is decided by the Speaker of Lok Sabha and the chairperson of Rajya Sabha, in consultation with each other as may be necessary, and its members are subsequently nominated by each party according to the party’s strength. This makes these committees skewed towards the ruling majority because of their numbers in the Houses,” the TMC leader said. He went on to drive home the point that “the chairperson of the JPC would have been a BJP MP.”He went on to highlight that “in almost every JPC there is no consensus on the final report”. “Whenever important amendments are proposed by an opposition MP, the amendments are defeated in the committee by a show of hands. The ruling party uses its brute majority to do this. This has become a trend,” he added.The TMC leader further stated that instead of coming to these meetings with an open mind, MPs representing the treasury benches come and “rubber stamp the views of the ruling party”. “Those in the opposition, holding an alternate view, are outvoted,” he pointed out and went on to say that “the only recourse left is to table a dissenting note – for the record”.In the post Brien also reflected on past examples from 1987, 1992 and 2001. “In the Bofors case of 1987, it was alleged that a Congress member had taken bribes while settling the deal of purchasing the Bofors ‘shoot and scoot’ guns. The JPC report was boycotted by the opposition highlighting that the committee was packed with members of the ruling party,” he shared.”When the Harshad Mehta scam (1992) surfaced, a JPC was set up to inquire into allegations that Mehta diverted funds to Maruti Udyog Limited and provoked a major fall in the Sensex. However, the recommendations were neither accepted nor implemented,” he added.“During the Share Market Scam (2001), the Ahmedabad-based Madhavpura Mercantile Cooperative Bank had big exposure to the stock market, courtesy former stockbroker Ketan Parekh. The JPC suggested stock market regulations, which were subsequently diluted,” he further stated. Citing these examples among others, Brien highlighted that the JPCs were originally conceived as democratic and well-intentioned mechanisms, established through motions passed by both Houses of Parliament and endowed with exceptional powers, such as summoning witnesses, demanding documents, and examining experts.“However, this purpose has eroded significantly post-2014, with JPCs increasingly being manipulated by the government in power. Now, in the same committee which represents public accountability, procedures are bypassed, opposition amendments rejected, and meaningful debate replaced by partisan fluff,” the TMC leader said. Go to Source
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