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Within minutes of the meeting getting underway, one could hear loud arguments between both the sides and within 15 minutes, PAC Chairman KC Venugopal said the meeting was adjourned.
The subject in question at the PAC meeting on Thursday was the examination of the functioning of the SEBI, for which its chairman Madhabi Buch was to be summoned. (Image: PTI)
Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting started off on Thursday on a stormy note, as was being anticipated, with arguments between MPs of the Opposition and the ruling NDA. The Chairman of the committee is Congress MP KC Venugopal. The subject in question was the examination of the functioning of the SEBI, for which its chairman Madhabi Buch was to be summoned. Within minutes of the meeting getting underway, one could hear loud arguments between both the sides and within 15 minutes, the meeting was adjourned.
However, despite the Chairman and the Opposition MPs leaving the meeting, the NDA MPs continued to sit. After sitting at the meeting and expecting a return of the Chairman for about 25 minutes, NDA leaders walked towards the Lok Sabha Speaker’s office in the new Parliament building. The delegation, which was led by former union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, met the Speaker and appraised him of the conduct of the Chairman of the PAC and complained about his walking out of the meeting and immediately speaking about the content of the committee meeting outside.
Sources have indicated that the Lok Sabha Speaker told the visiting delegation that he will look into the matter in detail.
As soon as he walked out, Venugopal said that he had shown grace to the SEBI Chairman by allowing her to excuse herself from this meeting, citing personal reasons, even though the communication was extremely late. “We got information as late as 9:30 AM today, but despite this, we decided to give her grace and will ask her to appear before the next meeting because she has cited personal reasons and we respect that because she is a lady,” Venugopal said.
Following this, Prasad led the attack on behalf of the ruling side, saying they were extremely pained and disappointed with the conduct of the Chairman. “He has gone out and spoken about the content of the meeting outside and conducted himself in a manner which is not behaving of a chairperson of a committee like this. This conduct reeks of selfish political agenda,” the former union minister said.
Sources aware of the what happened at the meeting said that unlike what has been a norm, there was no greeting of members or introduction of members in the panel and that the Chairman just started reading out the statement that he had come prepared with. The intent of summoning the chief of SEBI “over vested interest of a certain political party” was countered by the NDA MPs. The NDA MPs were “shocked” because not only did the chairperson and the other opposition MPs walk out after adjournment of the meeting, but they also led the Secretariat staff to walk out of the meeting along with them.
Early last month, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had written a letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker alleging the committee chairman was trying to pursue his party’s political agenda using the committee as a platform.
Dubey further cited the violation of the functions of the committee as per Rule 308(1) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, which state that examination of accounts showing the appropriation of sums granted by Parliament for the expenditure of the Government of India, the annual finance accounts of the Government and other such accounts laid before the House as the committee may think fit.
The Opposition members who were present at the meeting on Thursday were TMC’s Saugata Roy, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva and TMCs Sukendu Shekhar Roy among others. From NDA, Anurag Thakur, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nishikant Dubey, Aparajita Sarangi, Tejaswi Surya, CM Ramesh, Praful Patel, Ashok Chavan among others were present.
Madhabi Puri Buch has been facing allegations of conflict of interest. A Hindenburg report had first highlighted this claim, and it was later picked up by the Congress, which conducted several press conferences, challenging her appointment. She has faced questions about her as well as her husband’s connections with businessman Gautam Adani. So far, the SEBI chief has categorically denied all the allegations.
After the lunch break, the PAC meeting in the second half of the day started cordially. Chairman of TRAI Anil Kumar Lahoti deposed before the panel on Thursday afternoon.
