NEW DELHI: Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch on Thursday cited “personal exigencies” to skip Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting, which soon led to a fight between the panel’s head K C Venugopal and NDA members who accused him of taking unilateral decisions and proceeded to lodge a protest with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
The committee’s proceedings remained deadlocked even during its second sitting, where the Trai chairperson appeared briefly, amid NDA members’ demand that Venugopal allow a vote on agenda items like summoning the heads of regulatory bodies, something that was opposed by MPs from Congress and its allies.Venugopal deferred the meet after Buch’s no-show.
The confrontation escalated when leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge joined in. “Why is Madhabi Buch reluctant to answer questions… Who is behind the plan to protect her from being answerable to PAC?” Rahul said on X.
NDA MPs call on Birla, lodge protest against Venugopal
The PAC has constitutional right to summon any officer in connection with any govt investigation, Kharge posted.
The feud over Buch started as soon as Congress-led opposition made public its intent to question the Sebi chief over allegations by Hindenburg that she did not conduct a thorough probe into “market manipulation” by Adani group, prime target of the short-seller, as well as her personal dealings involving “role conflict”. BJP opposed the plan by saying PAC’s mandate was limited to examining utilisation of funds by the market regulator and that Congress, through its MP K C Venugopal, was seeking to misuse the forum for partisan ends.
Sources said Buch, in one of her communications to the PAC chairperson, referred to the Hindenburg issue and made some points. Some opposition members of the committee were left surprised as the panel has so far made no official mention of the contentious issue.
On Thursday, Venugopal turned down the demand for taking a vote on summoning Buch by saying that there could not be any voting on subjects already approved by the committee, keeping open the possibility of calling Buch again, sources said.
During the afternoon sitting, BJP member Nishikant Dubey cited parliamentary rules to move a motion to drop five of the 161 subjects selected by the committee for its annual agenda, and called for a vote. He said these subjects fell outside the PAC’s remit. With NDA members in majority in the panel, the chairperson did not allow the motion. He then called off the meeting amid protests by ruling alliance members. NDA members called on Birla and lodged a formal protest against Venugopal.
As the panel met first at 11am, heated words were exchanged between the two sides. Venugopal read out from Buch’s letter amid the din and immediately postponed the proceedings.
Venugopal indicated his disapproval of the Sebi chief skipping the meeting, noting that Buch had confirmed her presence after her earlier request for an exemption was denied. “Considering a woman’s request, we thought it better to postpone today’s meeting for another day,” he said.
PAC member and BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad said there were many standing committees which reviewed performance of bodies such as Sebi, RBI & Trai: “Your (Venugopal) own words are ‘suo motu’. How did you decide? PAC’s job is to consider CAG reports. We have this information from reliable sources that CAG made no mention of Sebi. This conduct is unparliamentary. Conduct of the chairperson in the way he adjourned, did not allow us to speak… (he) walked out (which) shows he has extraneous political considerations.”
Venugopal strongly rebutted the claim by showing committee reports on Sebi from the past. He showed two reports on Sebi from the 15th Lok Sabha when BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi was PAC chairman, arguing that the reports were not on any CAG audit para. To BJP’s claims about unilateral agenda setting, Venugopal is said to have read out Parliament bulletins and also circulars, arguing the agenda was set by the members.