House committee appointments spark Speaker-LoP face-off

Sharma questions Speaker’s seniority argument, says fairness must prevail over party interests

Jammu Tawi, May 18: The battle between Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Abdul Rahim Rather and Leader of Opposition Sunil Kumar Sharma intensified on Monday, with the latter questioning the former and asking whether the yardstick of seniority applied only to the BJP and not to the ruling alliance, whose first-time MLAs, he said, have been appointed as heads of non-financial committees.

In a statement issued to the media, Sharma termed the Speaker’s claims on the issue of appointing chairpersons of House committees as smacking of an attempt to shield wrongdoing rather than to respond to the reservations of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over it.

He said the Speaker’s discretion to appoint heads of six non-financial House committees cannot be driven by party interests, but must be guided by fairness and well-established conventions.

Responding to the Speaker’s claims, Sharma said that an attempt has been made to portray him as if he was oblivious to the process of constituting three financial committees.

He said that he had clearly mentioned in his handout issued to the media on Friday that the opposition has been ignored while appointing heads of six non-financial committees.

He said the Speaker’s claim that the post of chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been given to the Bharatiya Janata Party is not a favour to the party, but a well-established convention across the country. “The post of PAC chairman has always been held by the opposition, whether it is in Parliament, states, or Union Territories with legislatures,” he said.

He said the Speaker’s assertion that senior BJP members were adjusted in financial committees and couldn’t be appointed as heads of other committees was questionable, asking why the same yardstick was not applied to the ruling alliance whose first-time MLAs have been appointed as heads of House committees.

“There are several second-time MLAs of BJP who are not part of financial committees, but the Speaker has chosen first-timers from the ruling alliance as heads of non-financial committees,” he said.

Sharma said the Speaker has exclusive powers to nominate chairpersons and members of non-financial committees, but discretion cannot be guided by party interests and should be exercised on the basis of well-established conventions and the principle of proportionate representation.

“The chairpersons of committees are appointed on the basis of the principle of proportionate representation,” he said.