Arbitrariness in setting the agenda? BJP’s allegation – Venugopal broke the dignity of parliamentary committee, created ruckus

New Delhi: After the uproar by TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee in the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf Amendment Bill, now there has been an uproar in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting of the Parliament. On Thursday, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch was to appear before the PAC, but she did not come, after which the meeting was adjourned. Congress leader and PAC chief KC Venugopal complained about the non-appearance of the SEBI Chief. When he/she expressed his/her anger, BJP leader and committee member Ravi Shankar Prasad accused Venugopal of violating decorum. Prasad said that Venugopal has violated the rules by giving a statement in the media about the PAC meeting.

According to sources, SEBI Chief Madhabi Puri Buch informed Venugopal in the morning that he/she was in no position to travel to Delhi. On this, Venugopal said, ‘In the first meeting of the committee itself, we had decided to take suo motu cognizance to review our regulatory bodies. That’s why we had called for SEBI’s review this morning.

he/she further said, ‘The committee branch sends notices to the concerned people. First of all he/she asked for exemption. The SEBI chairperson sought exemption from appearing before the committee, which we rejected. After that he/she confirmed that he/she and his/her team will be present in this committee. This morning she (SEBI Chairperson, Madhabi Puri Buch) informed me that she is not in a position to travel to Delhi. Considering the request of a woman, we thought it would be better to adjourn today’s meeting to some other day.

However, Ravi Shankar Prasad criticized Venugopal for discussing the proceedings of the PAC meeting outside or with the media and accused the opposition members of unparliamentary conduct. he/she said, ‘Generally we do not discuss the proceedings of the meetings of standing committees or PAC outside. We are saddened that PAC President KC Venugopal gave an outside byte.

Prasad also accused Venugopal of running the PAC as per his/her wish. he/she said, ‘We were in majority in the PAC meeting today. We objected to his/her spontaneous decision of choosing this topic, did he/she ask anyone? We had serious reservations about the procedure followed in the PAC meeting… It was strange, he/she (K.C. Venugopal) suddenly got up and left… The job of the PAC is to discuss the CAG report, but he/she automatically How did you decide to take cognizance? We have reports from reliable sources that CAG has not given any paragraph on SEBI in its report.

BJP MPs included in the committee also complained about the PAAC chief. Prasad said, ‘Today’s conduct of the PAC chairperson – the way he/she did not allow us to speak and walked away, is unparliamentary and politically motivated. Therefore, we are going to lodge our complaint with the Lok Sabha Speaker.

Earlier in September this year, SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch, in a joint statement, had termed the recent allegations against them as ‘false, inaccurate, malicious and motivated’. Madhabi and Dhaval Butch assert that their income tax returns were obtained by the accusers illegally and by fraudulent means.

Keep in mind that in the meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf Amendment Bill, TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee slammed a glass kept on the table and he/she himself got injured. The broken glass pierced his/her hand due to which he/she had to get stitches. Just three days after this incident, there has been an uproar over the Public Accounts Committee meeting.