SEBI chief did not attend PAC meeting, BJP complained about Venugopal’s conduct to LS President

The Uncut


New Delhi. Following Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chief Madhavi Puri Buch’s inability to appear before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday, committee chief K.C. Venugopal adjourned its meeting.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) complained to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, accusing Venugopal of taking decisions unilaterally and unparliamentary conduct.

Senior Congress leader Venugopal says that Buch informed at 9.30 am today that she would not be able to attend the PAC meeting due to personal reasons, after which it was decided to postpone the meeting. Venugopal told reporters, “In the first meeting of the committee, we had decided that the first topic should be to review our regulatory institutions. Therefore, today we had called the head of SEBI to review this institution.”

He said, “First of all, exemption was sought for the SEBI chief from appearing before the committee, which we refused. After this, she confirmed that she would appear before the committee. “Today at 9.30 am, it was informed by the SEBI chief and its other members that due to personal reasons she cannot travel to Delhi.” Venugopal said that keeping in mind the request of a woman, it was decided to postpone Thursday’s meeting.

BJP members allege that Venugopal decided to adjourn the meeting on “spontaneous cognizance” and did not take their opinion in this regard. Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “This is a big topic. He says that the decision was taken on suo motu cognizance. How did you decide? The job of PAC is to deliberate on the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) report.” He said that there are standing committees of the concerned departments to look after the functioning of different institutions.

Prasad said, “We have received information from reliable sources that there is no paragraph about SEBI in the CAG report.” He alleged that the conduct of the PAC chief is completely unparliamentary. Later, BJP leaders lodged a protest with the Lok Sabha Speaker over Venugopal’s conduct. The agenda of the PAC meeting included oral evidence from representatives of the Finance Ministry and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as part of the committee’s decision to “review the functioning of the regulatory bodies established by Act of Parliament”.

The agenda also included oral evidence from representatives of the Ministry of Communications and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. There was no opposition to the Committee’s decision to include on the agenda a review of the functioning of regulatory bodies established by law. But, Venugopal’s decision to call Butch was not liked by the ruling party members. Butch has been at the center of political controversy arising from the allegations against the American organization ‘Hindenberg’. The American short-seller company had leveled allegations of conflict of interest against Buch, after which the Congress launched sharp attacks on him and the government.

On October 5, PAC member Nishikant Dubey had accused committee chairman Venugopal of raising meaningless issues to defame the central government and destabilize the country’s financial structure and economy. BJP MP Dubey, in a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, had accused Venugopal of misusing his position and working as part of a ‘tool kit’ to harm the country’s economy. Venugopal did not react to Dubey’s allegations.

MPs from the BJP and its allies have a majority in the committee and can vehemently oppose any move by opposition members to raise issues in its meetings which they believe are beyond the scope of the committee. Dubey says that the sole function of the Public Accounts Committee is limited to examining the appropriation accounts of the Government of India and the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

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