NEW DELHI: People are free to say what they like but the fact is that the JPC report is a bipartisan unanimous document prepared by 30 members of Parliament from all political parties.

That is how Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee Ram Niwas Mirdha reacted when asked to comment on the criticism of the report by his own party colleagues.

Unperturbed by the caustic remarks against the JPC report by Congress MPs last week Mirdha said that the report had been prepared after a lot of time and effort and reflected the opinion of the House. He felt it would be wrong to interpret the JPC report as being against the Government’s policies of liberalization

I don’t need to defend the report Mirdha said. It is there for everybody to read.

The atmosphere prevailing in the Committee was very different from that in Parliament. We all agreed to work together in a bipartisan manner in the house however people act differently. The discussion goes along political lines the Press is there to report what is said. The healthy convention we were able to set was that we were able to come together to present a unanimous report. There are bound to be differences among members about the degrees of emphasis Mirdha said.

Article extracted from this publication >> January 7, 1994