By IANS,
New Delhi : Taking on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for threatening to move a privilege motion against him, Communications Minister Kapil Sibal Friday accused it of attempting to use the law to obstruct running of his ministry.
“Now we understand that not only does the law of parliamentary privileges for the BJP mean the privilege to obstruct parliament, but it also means the privilege to obstruct running my ministry,” Sibal told reporters here.
“I wish the leader of opposition had been more thoughtful and circumspect when enunciating the law of parliamentary privileges. For one’s vision should not be blurred in enunciating the law when one is obsessed with politics,” he added.
Earlier in the day, the BJP threatened to move a privilege motion against Sibal over setting up of a one-man committee to probe the 2G spectrum allocation issue during 2001 to 2009.
BJP leader Arun Jaitley said his party is seriously examining the possibility of moving a privilege motion against Sibal for announcing the probe at a press conference and not in parliament.
The BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi remarked that Sibal’s action was highly objectionable and can invite a privilege motion.
According to Joshi, the general practice is that any policy announcement cannot be made outside the house when parliament is in session.
Sibal Thursday said his ministry has set up a one-man panel to examine how appropriate the current norms are to allocate airwaves to telecom players as the issue has become a matter of hot debate.
The committee will probe the allocation of spectrum from 2001 to 2009, a period also involving the National Democratic Alliance regime.