Manmohan Singh says he will break his silence on JPC issue at a ’suitable time’

BERLIN - Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said today he would break his silence on the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) issue “at a suitable time”.

Speaking onboard the special aircraft, he said that the existing institutional mechanisms can take care of what the JPC can do and expressed the hope that opposition will see reason.

Dr. Singh said that he was very sad that the Parliament was not allowed to function.

Asked what if this impasse continued into the budget session, he said: ” I am worried about the future of the parliamentary system…I hope reason will prevail.”

To a question that the Opposition was saying that “during the Parliament session you were out of the country,” the Prime Minister replied: “These dates were fixed long ago. Commitments have to be kept or else nobody will take us seriously. Anyway, not much is happening in the Parliament.”

The Winter Session of Parliament began on November 9 and has witnessed repeated adjournments over the opposition’s insistence for a JPC probe into the 2G scam, even after A. Raja resigned as Communications and IT Minister. By Smita Prakash (ANI)