‘Incremental progress’ in India’s UNSC bid,says V-P Ansari

Elections to the non-permanent UNSC seat are due later this year,and Prague and Zagreb have evinced support for India’s candidature for permanent membership of the Security Council.

The Vice-President also dwelt on one of his favourite themes: transparency in government spending and a strict audit regime. His views are in consonance with those expressed recently by Vinod Rai,the Comptroller and Auditor General who has said a large percentage of government spending is out of the audit purview and that regulatory bodies and social sector spending also need to come under fiscal scrutiny.

“My view is that anything in which public money is going out of the consolidated fund of the government should be within the reach of the CAG. If it is not actually so,it is a problem,a lacunae,” Ansari said. “The manner in which the public funds are being channelised for public purposes are changing. It is not the same when the Constitution was adopted. And I think after what the Finance Minister has said (at the CAG conference in April),the government would agree (to an expansion of the CAG’s role).”

In his capacity as the Rajya Sabha Chairman,the Vice-President also fielded questions on the subject of frequent stalling of parliamentary proceedings during the UPA regimes. “I have spoken to the Lok Sabha Speaker about this and she is equally concerned. We have to see how to minimise time lost and maximise the time taken to finish the agenda fixed for Parliament sessions. I am hoping that through a process of careful consensus,we will be able to find a solution to this problem,” he added.

Describing his two-nation tour as an occasion to visit “old friends in new circumstances”,Ansari said India already had a “convergence of views and a solid basis of understanding” with the Czech Republic and Croatia and that his visit would be a reiteration of historic ties.