Aware that NDA may have gone overboard, Shekhawat steps in to bridge the divide

The details of the formula are still being worked out and could involve an all-party meeting followed by a unanimous resolution/statement highlighting the need for bipartisan cooperation in running Parliament.

There was also speculation that a deal had been worked out involving the withdrawal of both Pranab Mukherjee’s statement attacking the Opposition on the floor of the Lok Sabha on the last day of the session on July 23 and the remarks made by BJP leader V K Malhotra against the Speaker which had prompted that statement. However, Congress and BJP spokespersons pleaded ignorance about such a deal today.

While leaders of the Opposition and the government—notably Parliamentary Affairs minister Ghulam Nabi Azad—are engaged in informal talks, the presiding officers of the two Houses have a central role in solving the impasse since the committees are creatures of the legislature and not the executive.

Of the two presiding officers, the role of Shekhawat is more important in the current case for two reasons. First, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee is himself at the centre of the controversy that erupted in the House on the last day and sections in the Opposition continue to resent him.

Second, Shekhawat has close ties with many of the BJP leaders and is also widely respected across party lines. His “sagacity” can go a long way in removing the bitterness on both sides and bring about a truce, sources said.

According to sources, it is not the contours of a “formula” but the realisation in the BJP that it may have gone too far that has laid the basis for a compromise.

BJP leaders L K Advani and V K Malhotra, it is felt, had miscalculated the implications of the boycott decision.

While attacking the government on the issue of tainted ministers and disrupting Parliament on the Shibhu Soren case was supported by most NDA MPs, the decision to stay away from committees is being seen as too extreme.

Since parliamentary committees are not appointed by the government but belong to the legislature, boycotting them is tantamout to denigrating Parliament and abdicating the Opposition’s watchdog role, many feel.

Besides, MPs get a handsome daily allowance for attending committee meetings as well as their airfare to and from Delhi.

The MPs, already forlorn at having unexpectedly lost power in the elections, are unhappy at the prospect of losing these perks as well.

The sentiment of MPs apart, the BJP leadership appears to have realised that the boycott move has not gone down well with the public at large and could reinforce the party’s image of being “bad losers”.

The leadership’s lack of clarity on why exactly it was boycotting parliamentary committees has also contributed to the current discomfiture.

The party’s main demand was for a statement from the Prime Minister on the “missing” mininster.

But it announced the boycott decision after Soren had been dismissed, thus failing to link the decision with the tainted ministers’ issue.

Over the last three days, BJP leaders including president Venkaiah Naidu and general secretary Arun Jaitley have said their decision is to protest against the government’s “confrontationist attitude” towards the opposition but failed to spell out any specific demand of the government.

With the “battle of nerves” not going in their favour, the party is ready to accept a compromise and the government is ready to offer one — and the boycott is likely to end well before Parliament resumes the Budget Session on August 16, sources said.