Pranab Mukherjee to persuade Opposition to join Parliament

Faced with increasing criticism from all quarters, including the judiciary, Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee is set to talk to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other Opposition leaders to persuade them to give up the demand for setting up of a joint parliamentary committee for probing the 2G Spectrum scam and join the Parliament proceedings.

The Opposition parties have stalled business in the House for the past two weeks to press for setting up of JPC to investigate the telecom scam, that led the Supreme Court to ask for a reply from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as to why did he take 11 months to give nod to a criminal proceeding against the “tainted” Telecom Minsiter A Raja.

Mukherjee will hold talks with the Opposition parties before joining Parliament.

The government rejects the JPC demand on the ground that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC),headed by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, was looking into the matter, and it was enough to satisfy all quarters in the probe.

The Congress Core Group, which includes Singh and president Sonia Gandhi, empowered Mukherjee to renew the government?s appeal that Parliament be allowed to function.