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PMO rejects charges against constitution review panel

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Senior officials of the prime minister's office today strongly rejected the Opposition's assertion that the induction of former Lok Sabha speaker Purno A Sangma had damaged the neutrality of the Constitution review panel.

Congress spokesmen Ajit Jogi and Anil Shastri had claimed yesterday that since Sangma was "biased", his contribution to the review panel would not be neutral.

Sangma, a senior leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, had left the Congress with Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar following irreconcilable differences with party chief Sonia Gandhi.

"Do you think somebody like Justice Venkatachaliah will allow anything which even remotely put a shadow of doubt on the impartiality of the Constitution review commission," one of the officials asked.

"He accepted the chairmanship of the commission only after being personally assured by the prime minister that the basic features would not be touched and that it would have a free hand in its functioning," the officials said.

Referring to the other members in the panel, the official maintained that "everyone of them is a heavyweight and only those with a guilt complex would cast aspersions on the composition of the commission," the official said.

BJP leaders, however, questioned the motives of Opposition leaders in "casting aspersions" on any member of the commission, underscoring that it was the government's right to appoint anyone it chose to.

"When eminent constitutional and legal experts have been inducted in the review commission, it is nobody's case to object to anybody's presence it," said BJP spokesperson Venkaiah Naidu.

"The government cannot consider any party's likes or dislikes while appointing a commission and its members," he said.

According to Naidu, former Supreme Court judge and Chairman of the Law Commission B P Jeevan Reddy, former attorney-general K Parasaran, former high court judge K Punnaiah and the other members in the commission were noted for their expertise in legal and constitutional affairs.

"Therefore, critics with pre-conceived notions need not resort to criticism even before the commission has started its work," he said.

A BJP Lok Sabha MP, not wishing to be identified, said the party, in its manifesto, had already spoken about raising the issue of foreign persons being banned from contesting top posts like that of the president and the prime minister. Hence, the ostensible outrage of the Opposition parties, especially the Congress, that Sangma would damage the neutrality of the review commission was " uncalled for," he emphasised, adding that "it is only a coincidence that Sangma has been inducted in the review commission."

But the fact that other than Sangma, the panel also houses known Congress-baiters like Cushrow R Irani and Mahatma Gandhi's grand-daughter Sumitra Kulkarni, now a BJP member, in the commission appears to be too much of a coincidence.

Irani, in his weekly column in The Statesman, has relentlessly criticised the controversial Bofors deal made when Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister. Irani's zeal in periodically raising the issue in his write-ups give the Congress little reason to believe that he is unbiased.

It was pointed out that Kulkarni too reportedly resents the party's alleged misuse of the Mahatma's name. BJP sources say that Kulkarni's dislike for the Congress and her proximity to their own "cannot be helped".

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