New Delhi, August 05: Minister of State for Personnel V Narayanasamy introduced the long-awaited Lokpal Bill in the Lok Sabha today amidst objections by Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj over the exclusion of the Prime Minister’s office from its ambit.
After Speaker Meira Kumar allowed Swaraj to express her views on the introduction of the Bill, the BJP leader sought to know why the government was seeking to keep the Prime Minister out of its purview. She pointed out that the Prime Minister did not enjoy any immunity from prosecution under the Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act. This, she contended, was violative of the tenets of the Constitution, which provided for equality.
“It is for the first time that under Clause 2 of of the Lokpal Bill, all Union ministers are included except the Prime Minister. I don’t understand why. How can anybody occupying any position be a holy cow? Why is the Prime Minister being kept out of its purview?” Swaraj said.
She reminded Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee that as the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Home during NDA rule, he had endorsed the provision in the Lokpal Bill that covered the office of the Prime Minister. Underlining the fact that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had himself said he had no objection to the post being included under the Bill, she wondered: “Why is the Cabinet not paying heed to his views?”
Swaraj said the BJP had several objections to the proposed Bill but would, for the moment, confine herself to only the exclusion of the Prime Minister.
Mukherjee later got up to join issue with Swaraj. He agreed that he had indeed endorsed the provision, but said he had placed the Bill on the table of the House as the chairman of the standing committee on February 16, 2002. “NDA had two full years after that,” he said. “Why did they not bring the Bill?”
NDA convenor and JD(U) president Sharad Yadav stood up to say something but the Speaker did not permit him saying he had not given prior notice.
Narayanasamy told restive opposition members that ultimately the Bill will go to the Standing Committee, implying they could place their opinions before the panel.
Earlier, in the course of his reply to the motion on price rise, Pranab Mukherjee said the government had elicited the views of the civil society. However, “There is no question of diluting the authority of Parliament in making the legislation”, he said. Normal legislative process will be followed in the case of the Lokpal Bill, the minister added.
Swaraj later told reporters that the BJP wanted a credible and effective Lokpal, which could not happen if the Prime Minister was exempted from its purview. “If the logic is that the Prime Minister has to take several sensitive decisions, then so does the Defence Minister and the Home Minister. It will create a situation wherein if the Prime Minister and others are involved in a decision, others can be prosecuted and the Prime Minister cannot be,” she said.
Raising the 2G spectrum scam, the BJP leader said “it has become clear” that Manmohan Singh was in the know and decisions were taken with his concurrence. In the case of the Commonwealth Games projects also, the CAG has said that the Prime Minister was involved in decision making, she said.
Swaraj’s counterpart in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said keeping the Prime Minister out of the Lokpal ambit was “illogical”. Giving immunity to the Prime Minister by creating a separate category for him was constitutionally invalid as all are equal before law, he argued. “It is the first time that the Prime Minister is being treated as a class apart.”
Taking a dig at the government and the Congress, Swaraj said the Prime Minister has publicly stated that he is ready for his post to be under the ambit of Lokpal. “He rarely speaks… And now that he has spoken, nobody is listening to him.”
Courtesy: IE