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CWG scam: PMO, Sheila Dikshit's indictment set to rock Parliament today
-The Times of India
 
In what is expected to be an action-packed day, Parliament will discuss on Tuesday the CAG indictments of the Prime Minister's Office and Delhi CM Shiela Dikshit under the garb of a debate on the privilege motion which the BJP has brought against sports minister Ajay Maken for allegedly misleading the Houses by blaming Suresh Kalmadi's appointment as CWG boss on the NDA government.

The Congress had opposed a discussion on the CAG report per se, with MoS for parliamentary affairs Rajeev Shukla citing the procedural requirement that the findings be vetted by the Parliament's public accounts committee before the Houses discussed them.

However, a discussion on whether Maken twisted facts as he tossed Kalmadi, a Congress MP rendered a political hot potato since his arrest for the Games scam, into the NDA's column, will help the opposition get around the rule prohibiting a discussion on the CAG report till it has been scanned by the PAC.

The two sides agreed to hold the discussion on the BJP's privilege motion against Maken after non-Congress MPs forced the Lok Sabha's adjournment demanding action against Dikshit. In the commotion over the demands for Dikshit's resignation, question hour was the first casualty as Speaker Meira Kumar announced an initial hour-long adjournment. MPs of Samajwadi Party, which has of late dropped its fence-sitter garb for an anti-government stance, were the first to troop to the well waving copies of newspaper reports about alleged financial bungling of the Delhi government and Dikshit's role in it. "Sheila Dikshit isteefa do (resign Sheila Dikshit)," was the war cry. Before the first adjournment, BJP MPs almost played second fiddle to Mulayam's party even as the leader himself looked on benignly.

Maken had claimed that the UPA government was compelled to appoint Kalmadi because of the agreement that was signed with the Commonwealth Games Federation during the NDA's tenure-an assertion he stood by on Monday. The claim has been disputed by the BJP, which says the sports minister had selectively quoted from the documents and that it had documentary evidence to nail his misstatement.

The skirmish will give the BJP enough opening to focus on the role of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself since the circumstances under which Kalmadi managed to have a free run of the Games preparations go to the heart of its allegation that the Pune MP could not have commandeered the mega sports event without the PMO's indulgence. Likewise, the debate will give the BJP enough elbow room to also target Diksht for her role in the scam, something that the Congress wished to avoid on the ground that Parliament could discuss CAG's findings only after they had been scrutinized by the PAC.

Interestingly, Maken rushed to blame the NDA for Kalmadi's appointment before CAG had commented on the PMO's role in allowing the OC to be hijacked by Kalmadi and his group. The minister had made a suo motu statement in Parliament in response to a report in TOI about the impending criticism of the PMO. While the activism may have pleased the PMO at the time, it has now become the source of discomfort for the Delhi CM.

When the House reconvened, many BJP MPs did not even bother to take their seats and instead waited on the steps in preparation for another incursion to the well. Some papers were laid on the table even as opposition MPs led by Navjot Singh Sidhu sloganeered, "Ab to ye spasht hai, Sheila Dikshit bhrasht hai (Now it is clear that Sheila Dikshit is corrupt)," in the well. After the second attempt at running the House too failed, Kumar adjourned it for the day.

Later Shukla said, "We are ready to allow a discussion on the privilege motion against the sports minister but a discussion on the CAG report cannot happen till it is taken up by the PAC." Maken insisted that he had said nothing wrong in the House and expressed "surprise" at the BJP not seeking any clarifications as is the norm and instead moving a privilege motion. "I stand by what I said. It was NDA leaders like V K Malhotra, Abhay Chautala and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa who voted for Kalmadi," Maken said.