PC Chacko Bailed Out Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

JD(U) betrayal or joining hands with arch rival Congress in the JPC on 2G scam proves, one idiom for sure that "in politics there is no permanent friends or foes" or what you had opposed rigorously for years, one nice morning you may start praising that . 

Only yesterday in the press conference Congress media chief Maken was proving hard of the benefit of the ordinance,and ll on  sudden the next moment  phone call from the boss made him finding so many faults in that. This makes it clear that "changing gears ideology" suits both the JD(U) and the Congress best.

JPC chairman PC Chacko managed  to win the show with last minute addition of support from outside allies BSP and SP and absence of JD(U) members.

Eleven opposition members, including BJP, BJD, TMC, CPI, CPI(M), AIADMK and DMK voted against the Joint Parliamentary Committee report, that accused former telecoms minister A Raja of  “misleading” the PM and “belying” the assurances given to him. 

Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad warned  that he will be putting in a “strong dissent note”. He called the adoption of report as a “black day in the annals of parliamentary democracy” and described it as a “bail out report”.

JPC chairman PC Chacko said he had requested the members to adopt the report, in which the JPC panel approved clean chit to prime minister Manmohan Singh and finance minister P Chidambaram  unanimously and to give their dissent notes which will be made part of the bound report.

Why Political Parties Will be Exempted from RTI Act ?

The Union Cabinet has cleared two amendments to the transparency Act to keep political parties out of ambit of RTI Act and  just to negate and to counter the Central Information Commission order that six national political parties :Congress, BJP, BSP, NCP, CPI and CPM are public authorities, this order will allow the RTI Act applicable on them. The bill is likely to be brought in the monsoon session of Parliament , while the Civil society activists are gearing up for an offensive against the government's proposed legislation to exclude political parties from the ambit of the RTI Act. 

Besides petitions to parliamentarians, the PM and the President, urging them not to support the amendments, activists plan to hold protest demonstrations and ultimately to challenge the legislation in court as a last resort. Inspite of many "petitions of opposition" by many eminent citizens, the government is fairly confident of smooth passage of the RTI bill.

Activists plan to challenge the proposed legislation on the grounds that it is against the constitutional right to freedom of speech. There has been a precedent earlier when the Supreme Court struck down an similar amendment to the Representation of People's Act, in 2002 and directed candidates to submit their financial details and criminal antecedents before the Election Commission of India, calling the the amendment was in violation of the constitutional right to freedom of speech.