Jaitley: Not House resolution,but in-principle acceptance

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley has said though the 'sense of the House' passed by Parliament on the three demands of Team Anna is not binding on the standing committee,it is unlikely to reject it.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley has said though the 8216;sense of the House8217; passed by Parliament on the three demands of Team Anna is not binding on the standing committee,it is unlikely to reject it.

He said it 8220;is a commitment before the whole country. The chances of the House going back on it normally does not arise8221;.

Maintaining that it was only an 8220;in-principle8221; acceptance of the three points raised by Team Anna,Jaitley explained that there was 8220;no proposer,no seconder,and no voting8221; as is normally the case when a resolution is passed.

8220;I think parliamentary flexibility gives you enough leeway. If you were to ask me in one sentence,I think it was a sense of the House statement which in the text used the word 8216;resolve8217; twice.

8220;So there is a genuine ambiguity. But I am quite willing to accept it as a statement which indicates that it is a resolve on the part of the House,8221; Jaitley said in an interview to Karan Thapar for Devil8217;s Advocate programme on CNN-IBN.

8220;When a statement was read out by Pranab Mukherjee and which uses the word resolve twice,the entire House thumped their desks in approval,8221; Jaitley said.

However,he said,8221;As long as all concerned political parties and Team Anna treated it as a resolution even though it is a unanimous approval of a sense of the House,I think there are very little turns in this.8221;

Story continues below this ad

The BJP leader said it was for the standing committee to decide how the modalities are going to be worked out in detail.

8220;It respects the dignity of standing committee in as much as it does not give it a directive. It leaves the nuts and bolts of how it is to be framed to the standing committee,8221; Jaitley said.