Parliament constitutes 31-member JPC on bills to remove tainted ministers, Congress calls it mockery

The Parliament on Wednesday constituted a 31-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) that will scrutinize the bills for the removal of the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, and Ministers if they are under arrest on serious criminal charges for 30 days. However, 340 members of main Opposition parties including the Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Samajwadi Party (SP), DMK and the Left parties have stuck to their guns and boycotted the panel. Last month, the NCP (Sharad Pawar) decided to join the committee. NCP (MP) Supriya Sule, who is a member of the panel, earlier said that her party is not breaking ranks with the Opposition by choosing to be part of it. Apart from the NCP (SP), the AIMIM and other fence sitters such as the BJD, YSRCP and SAD have also joined the panel. The Joint Parliamentary Committee is a mockery when the joint Opposition representing the majority of Indians is absent, alleged the Congress. The committee will be headed by BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi, as per a Lok Sabha bulletin. It comprises 21 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha members who are part of the panel include Ravi Shankar Prasad, Bhartruhari Mahtab, Pradan Baruah, Brijmohan Agrawal, Vishnu Dayal Ram and Harsimrat Kaur Badal, among others. From the Rajya Sabha, the nominated members include Brij Lal, Ujjwal Nikam, Nabam Rebia, Dr. K. Laxman, Sudha Murty, Birendra Prasad Baishya, and S. Niranjan Reddy. Soon after the announcement of the panel, the Congress slammed the government alleging that it is a JPC of the BJP and its B-Team and a ubber stamp for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's unconstitutional agenda. Congress whip in the Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore said 340-plus MPs of the INDIA bloc are boycotting the so-called JPC on the Constitution (130th Amendment Bill), J&K Reorganisation Bill, and UTs Amendment Bill. Out of 31 members -- 21 are BJP and NDA allies (AGP, AIADMK, TDP, Pawan Party, UPPL); 10 are B-Team parties (BJD, TDP, YSRCP, SAD, NCP, AIMIM, etc.). Again Jagan proves he is with BJP/RSS, Tagore said, adding that the two nominated members were handpicked by the government. This JPC is nothing but a rubber stamp for Modi's unconstitutional agenda, Tagore said, adding that 340 MPs have boycotted it because the government formed it without consensus or parliamentary ethics. Even after being voted out, the VoteChori Modi Sarkar continues to misuse institutions, bulldoze Parliament, and now rewrite the Constitution itself. History will remember this as the day BJP tried to formally erase democracy, the Congress leader alleged. The TMC, the first party to boycott the panel, had called the panel a farce. Following this, the Samajwadi Party and AAP also announced that they will not join the panel, alleging that the purpose of the proposed legislations is to bring down opposition governments. After dilly dallying for a while, the Congress and other parties decided to boycott the panel for the sake of unity. The committee has been mandated to submit its report in the winter session, scheduled from December 1-19. Amid vociferous protest by the Opposition, the three bills -- the Constitution (One Hundred And Thirtieth Amendment) Bill 2025, Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill 2025; and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2025 -- were introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 20. Tempers flared in the House, copies of the bills were torn and flung, and members of the ruling and opposition alliances came face to face when Home Minister Amit Shah moved to introduce the bills.