New Delhi, Aug 23 (PTI) The TMC on Saturday said forming a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to look into three bills that lay down the framework for the removal of the prime minister and chief ministers is a “farce”.
The party led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also said that it will not send any member to the committee.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) is also unlikely to nominate any member to the panel, a source in the party said.
In a blogpost published on Saturday, TMC’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien said his party as well as the SP have decided not to nominate any members to the JPC. He claimed that the committees are skewed towards the ruling party because of its numbers in both houses of Parliament.
The Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill-2025, the Constitution (One Hundred And Thirtieth Amendment) Bill-2025 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill-2025 were introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
The bills provide a legal framework for the removal of the prime minister, chief ministers and ministers on being arrested for 30 consecutive days on serious charges.
The bills have been referred to a JPC.
“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 AITC,” the Trinamool Congress said in a statement.
In the blogpost, O’Brien said the TMC and the SP, the two largest opposition parties in Parliament after the Congress, have decided not to nominate members to the JPC and listed reasons for boycotting the panel.
“One, 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 chairperson of the JPC would have been a BJP MP,” he said.
O’Brien claimed 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,” he alleged.
The TMC leader added that instead of coming to the committee meetings with an open mind, MPs representing the treasury benches rubber-stamp the views of the ruling party.
He said the opposition members with an alternative view are outvoted. “The only recourse left is to table a dissenting note — for the record,” he noted.
Citing past examples, O’Brien mentioned the JPC report on the Bofors case of 1987, which was boycotted by the opposition as the committee was packed with members of the ruling party.
“Joint Parliamentary Committees (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,” he said.
“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.
“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 added.
The bills introduced just before the conclusion of the Monsoon session of Parliament sent the opposition up in arms.
Tempers flared in the Lok Sabha, copies of the bills were torn and flung, and members of the ruling and opposition alliances came face to face when Union Home Minister Amit Shah moved to introduce the bills.
TMC MPs charged towards Shah when he introduced the three draft laws.
Both houses have passed a resolution to refer the bills to a JPC comprising 21 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha.
The committee has been mandated to submit its report to the House in the Winter session, which is likely to be convened in the third week of November. PTI AO RC
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