NEW DELHI: The Indian government has offered to hold a special corruption debate with opposition lawmakers to break a deadlock that meant no legislation was passed in all of the last parliamentary session. Opposition MPs forced adjournments on every day of the winter session to demand a cross-party probe into a telecoms scandal, in which mobile phone licences were allegedly sold off in 2008 for a small fraction of their value. “If they (the opposition) assure that there will be a debate, I am ready to call a special session of parliament before the budget session so that this issue is debated,” Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said late Wednesday. Mukherjee asked the main opposition BJP to agree to the debate in parliament and “not destroy the institution itself”. But the BJP, which is keen to highlight a massive scandal that could have cost the treasury 40 billion dollars, said it stuck by its demands. The party accuses Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has maintained a reputation for honesty amid India's murky political world, of failing to act over the scandal concerning the sale of second-generation (2G) mobile licences. But the government has constantly refused calls for a cross-party probe, saying other independent investigations are underway, and parliament could again be deadlocked when it reconvenes for its budget session in February. Congress party has vowed to fight corruption by fast-tracking court cases, as the government tried to overcome stinging criticism after a string of financial scandals. Party president Sonia Gandhi, the key powerbroker of Indian politics, told the annual Congress leadership conference in New Delhi that the 125-year-old party must show zero tolerance of corruption to survive. “There should be no tolerance for corruption and we have demonstrated this through our actions and even when no charges have been made, we have asked our ministers and chief minister to step down pending enquiry,” Gandhi said. She said that corruption trials “drag on indefinitely and undermine public confidence” so she backed “a new system of fast-tracking all cases that concern corruption by public servants including politicians, including all of us.”
