Congress, BJP spar over controversial report

BANGALORE: 2 hrs 50 minutes. That was the time taken to debate whether or not to debate a contentious report submitted by privileges committee of the Karnataka legislative council here on Wednesday.
But it remained inconclusive forcing council chairman D H Shankar Murthy to seek his further arguments in writing from privileges committee chairman G Madhusudhan for him to decide whether to allow the debate or not.
The privileges committee report, which has indicted municipal administration, minority welfare, Haj and wakf minister Qamarul Islam for breach of privilege in connection with allegedly furnishing false information to the house on encroachment of wakf property was tabled in the House last week.
Making a preliminary submission, Capt Ganesh Karnik (BJP) and G Madhusudhan said it was a clear case of breach of privilege of the House because the minister had deliberately provided “false” information regarding alleged encroachment of wakf properties.
Objecting to it, chief minister Siddaramaiah and law minister T B Jayachandra argued that there was no need to debate the report, as the minister had no intention of misleading the house. Quoting Kaul and Shakdher — a well-known book on Parliamentary practices — they also pointed out that the ministers have provision under the rules of the House to make amendments or correction if in case they had provided any wrong information.
Madhusudhan, in his counter argument, presented some documents and quoted officials to prove that the minister made a deliberate attempt to hide the facts since the report of the Karnataka State Minorities Commission chairman Anwar Manippady had named several congress leaders including the minister himself in the report.
This led to bedlam in the House as ruling party members accused opposition of raking up the issue for political gains. "BJP has manipulated the report to suit their political needs by targeting a particular community," said Veeranna Mathikatti, who earlier resigned as chairman of privileges committee to make way for Madhusudhan.