New Delhi:
The cabinet has cleared the anti-corruption Lokpal Bill, and has decided that the Prime Minister will be exempt from investigation for corruption while he or she is in office. With this, the battle between the government and civil society activists led by Anna Hazare has peaked.
What the Cabinet has approved today is based largely on the recommendations of the five ministers who were part of the drafting committee of the Bill. The other half of the committee - Gandhian Anna Hazare and his four activists - had delivered a separate bill, which has been completely abandoned by the government. "This is not a Lokpal Bill, it's a Dhokapal (betrayal) Bill," said Kiran Bedi, a member of Team Anna. Mr Hazare says in protest, he will start a hunger strike on August 16. (
Watch: Team Anna lashes out)
At the two-hour cabinet meeting this morning, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that he had no objection to the Bill covering his office. "If you want me there, I have no problem. I leave it to the cabinet," he offered. The cabinet decided otherwise. So any complaints against the PM will now be examined only after the PM's term is completed. "The BJP does not appreciate the complete omission of the PM from the Lokpal bill," said the party's spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The Lokpal Bill will now be introduced in Parliament in the monsoon session which begins on Monday.
The Lokpal Bill is intended to check corruption within politicians and bureaucrats. After a long hunger strike by Mr Hazare in April which was supported by lakhs of Indians, the government agreed that the committee assigned to prepare the Bill would include five ministers and five non-elected representatives including Mr Hazare. The experiment failed miserably with both sides unable to find common ground on issues like who should select the members of the Lokpal; the most critical point of difference was whether the Bill should apply to the PM, a must-have according to Team Anna.
Mr Hazare's team urged the government last week to circulate its draft at the cabinet meeting as well as in Parliament. However, the salient points of Team Anna's version were presented this morning almost as footnotes. And there are new friction areas between the two sides. For example, the government says that all complaints have to be registered within seven years of the alleged offence being committed. This, Team Anna says, could result in immunity. Team Anna also worries that the nine-member selection committee for the Lokpal is skewed in the government's favour. The PM will chair this committee; four other members will be selected by the government.
The Lokpal or ombudsman will have a Chairperson and eight members - 50 per cent of them will be from the judiciary as will the chairperson, who has to be a serving or retired Chief Justice of India or Supreme Court judge. The non-judiciary members have to be "persons of impeccable integrity and outstanding ability," Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said.
Ministers today urged Mr Hazare not to challenge the government's draft in Parliament. "Anyone who challenges this procedure is challenging the Parliament of the country," said Law Minister Salman Khursheed. "If the government thinks it can fool the people by pulling such a cruel joke, it is sadly mistaken," said Prashant Bhushan, who was an activist-member of the drafting committee.