Chief’s post cleared, but Bill quiet on members of NAC

Section 2 of the Amendment Bill inserts ‘‘the office of the chairperson of the National Advisory Council’’ in the exempted list in the original Act. However, the other organisations are clubbed together in a table and the insertion related to it exempts, ‘‘the office of chairman, deputy chairman, secretary or member (by whatever name called) in any statutory or non-statutory body specified in the table.’’

The silence in the Amendment Bill about other members of the NAC has triggered speculation in Congress circles that Ramesh, who is a member of the Rajya Sabha, may have to give up his council membership. Ramesh refused to talk to The Indian Express and party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi avoided a direct reply. ‘‘What is in the Bill is there. And what is not there is not there,’’ Singhvi said.

He, however, added that NAC is ‘‘not an office-of-profit at all,’’ and the inclusion of its chairperson in the list of exemptions is to be ‘‘abundantly cautious’’.