New Delhi: SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch skipped a Parliament's Public Accounts Committee meeting on Thursday, prompting panel head K C Venugopal to postpone the sitting, with NDA members accusing him of taking unilateral decisions and lodging a protest with the Lok Sabha Speaker.
The committee's proceedings remained deadlocked even during its second sitting, where the TRAI chairperson appeared briefly, amid the NDA members' persistent demand that Venugopal allow a vote on agenda items like summoning the heads of regulatory bodies, an idea opposed by the MPs from the Congress and its allies.
Venugopal, a senior Congress member, insisted that there cannot be any voting on the subjects already approved by the committee, keeping open the possibility of calling Buch again, sources said. Buch, the sources said, in one of her communications to the PAC chairperson also referred to the Hindenburg issue and made some points. Some members of the committee were left surprised as the panel has so far made no official mention of the contentious issue.
During the afternoon sitting, BJP member Nishikant Dubey cited parliamentary rules to move a motion to drop five of the 161 subjects selected by the committee for its annual agenda, and called for a vote. He said these subjects fell outside the PAC's remit. With the BJP-led NDA members in majority in the panel, the chairperson did not allow the motion, citing his powers and called the waiting Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti to appear.
He then called off the meeting amid continuous protests by the ruling alliance members. As the committee met first at 11 am, heated words were exchanged between the two sides. Venugopal read out from Buch's letter to him amid the din and immediately postponed the proceedings.
He later told reporters that the panel received a communication from Buch at 9.30 am stating that she and her team would not be able to appear before the panel due to "exigencies". Venugopal indicated his disapproval of her decision, noting that Buch had confirmed her presence after her earlier request for an exemption was denied.
"Considering a woman's request, we thought it better to postpone today's meeting for another day," he said, even as NDA MPs stayed put at the venue. BJP members accused Venugopal of not letting them put across their views. They later charged him with acting in a "suo motu" manner, suggesting that his decision to summon Buch and even some other regulatory bodies established by the acts of Parliament was his own and guided by partisan politics.
PAC member and BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters that there are many standing committees that review the performance of various bodies e.g. the panel on finance scrutinises the work of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Reserve Bank of India. The Communication and Information Technology panel scrutinises the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, he added.
"Your (Venugopal) own words are 'suo motu'. How did you decide? The PAC's job is to consider CAG reports. We have this information from reliable sources that the CAG has made no mention of SEBI. This entire conduct is unparliamentary. The conduct of chairperson in the way he adjourned, did not allow us to speak. And (he) walked out (which) shows he has extraneous political considerations," Prasad said.
The former law minister said the ruling National Democratic Alliance was in a majority at Thursday's meeting. "Our main objection was how did he (Venugopal) make suo motu selection of subjects without consulting other members. Nobody had an inkling of the list that was prepared," said Prasad, flanked by other NDA members of the panel.
He also objected to the PAC secretariat officials leaving the venue after Venugopal adjourned the meeting when many other members remained inside. The NDA members met Speaker Om Birla later to register their protest against Venugopal.
The committee's decision to include in its agenda the performance review of regulatory bodies established by legislations had invited no protest, but Venugopal's move to call Buch raised hackles of the BJP members as she has been at the centre of a political row ignited by US firm Hindenburg's allegations against her.
Hindenburg's accusation of conflict of interest against Buch over the SEBI's probe into the short-seller's allegations against the Adani Group was seized upon by the Congress to seek her ouster and to attack the government, giving political dimensions to the panel's missive to her to appear before it.
PAC member and BJP MP Nishikant Dubey wrote to Speaker Om Birla last month against Venugopal, accusing the senior Congress leader of raking up "non-existent" issues to defame the central government and allegedly destabilise the country's financial structure and economy.
In his arguments at Thursday's meeting, Dubey said the five subjects which the ruling alliance members wanted dropped from the committee's agenda included policy issues, central welfare schemes and tax matters as these would encroach on the turfs of states and other institutions, and that these do not fall under the committee's purview.
Some opposition members recalled the PAC's summoning of the SEBI chairperson when it was headed by BJP leader Murali Manohar Joshi. BJP members countered that whenever there is a division in opinion, voting is the way out in parliamentary bodies.
