The Congress party is likely to boycott the Joint Committee of Parliament (JCP) to examine the three Bills that seek the removal of the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers and Ministers arrested for 30 consecutive days on serious charges, news agency PTI said quoting sources
The decision of the party may be communicated to Lok Sabha Speaker soon, the agency report said.
Before Congress party, INDIA bloc allies – the Trinamool Congress, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Aam Aadmi Party – have declared that they will not be part of the committee. The Samajwadi Party has hinted at supporting the view that the Opposition should be united in not joining the panel. Some opposition parties have not made their stand public but none have expressed willingness to join the panel.
Earlier this month, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had said that no political party has written to him about boycotting the JCP to examine these three Bills.
“On the issue of JPC, no political party has communicated to me in writing on this subject,” Birla had told reporters.
What are the three contentious Bills?
On the last day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament on 20 August, Home Minister Amit Shah introduced the three Bills in the Lok Sabha – the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill; the Constitution (One Hundred And Thirtieth Amendment) Bill; and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill.
The proposed laws call for the removal of the prime minister, chief ministers, and ministers under arrest for 30 consecutive days on serious charges.
The Bills ignited fierce protest from the entire opposition, which claimed they were unconstitutional and aimed at targeting its leaders in power in different states.
The House sent the Bills to a joint committee of Parliament, which will have 21 members from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha, for scrutiny, but the panel has not been formed yet.
Some reports suggested that Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju is expected to personally reach out to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, senior leader Jairam Ramesh, SP’s Akhilesh Yadav, AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal, and TMC’s Mamata Banerjee to persuade them to nominate members for the panel.
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