Media-lobbyist nexus may go to House panel- TNN, Nov 27, 2010,

Media-lobbyist nexus may go to House panel

TNN, Nov 27, 2010, 12.09am IST



NEW DELHI: The government on Friday hinted at the possibility of the media-lobbyist nexus being examined by either the ethics or privileges committee of Parliament.

Senior sources dropped broad hints that either of the two committees could go into the whole gamut of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia's telephonic conversations with media personalities.

This was the first government response to the Opposition's demand that the media's role in corporate lobbying come under the JPC scrutiny. The timing, too, was significant -- before yet another meeting with the Opposition on Monday to end the current impasse in Parliament.

The previous two meetings called by Pranab Mukherjee had not yielded any results as the deadlock continued. According to sources, Mukherjee will hold yet another round of discussion with the BJP-led Opposition in an attempt to explore some fresh meeting ground.

While the matter needs to be referred to the privileges committee by the House, the ethics committee could take note of it on its own.

However, the government left no doubts that a JPC was out of question even if that meant the rest of Parliament's winter session being wasted away. "Their intention is to turn the JPC into a political battle which has to be fought politically," parliamentary affairs minister P K Bansal told reporters.

The ruling coalition sees the JPC demand as an attempt to target PM Manmohan Singh and made it clear that it would oppose the move precisely on that ground.

Bansal said if the Opposition was keen to engage the PM in a discussion and ask questions to him, they should agree to a House debate. He recalled that when Congress had been in Opposition, its demand for a JPC probe into the Tehelka expose and coffin scam had been turned down by the Vajpayee government.