Somnath Chatterjee (CPM) met other committee members, including P Shiv Shanker (Cong) and Indrajit Gupta (CPI), and conveyed to Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Kumaramanglam that unless the committee's terms were amended, he would ``find it difficult to associate with the exercise.''

Chatterjee told The Indian Express that he told the Parliamentary Affairs Minister that the proposed terms were not acceptable, after receiving them by facsimile today.

The government proposed that the committee consider: Whether there should be a debate on the issue of dismissal of Vishnu Bhagwat in the national interest and what the format of discussion should be. Chatterjee said he did not agree with the Government that there should be no discussion on the subject at all. The committee's job should only beto decide the format of discussion and not scuttle the discussion itself, he added.