File Photo: Senior Lawyer Prashant Bhushan addressing a press conference
Stepping up the attack on ruling AAP over the 2015 Delhi Janlokpal Bill, ousted party leader Prashant Bhushan today said "contrary to the claims" made by the Arvind Kejriwal government, the proposed legislation is "completely" different from its previous 2014 version.
The senior lawyer claimed that the 2015 Bill increases the say of the government in the appointment and removal of the ombdusman and brings under its ambit Union government functionaries, among other "glaring" differences.
In the wake of the claims by the Swaraj Abhiyan leader, AAP had attacked Mr Bhushan, saying he was acting in "collaboration" with BJP.
But Bhushan, who was expelled from AAP for "anti-party activities", lashed out at the claim while likening Kejriwal to Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister under the infamous Hitler regime.
Bhushan also dared the Delhi chief minister to an open debate on the matter. The Delhi government will table the Bill tomorrow.
Releasing a comparative study of the several Lokpal Bills and Acts, including the Delhi Janlokpal Bill 2014, Uttarakhand Lokayukta Bill, Centre's Lokpal Act and Team Anna's Janlokpal draft, Mr Bhushan said the Bill cleared by the current Delhi Cabinet was the "worst" of all.
Meanwhile, functionaries in the AAP government, when contacted, refused to comment on the charges made by the lawyer.
Significantly, the 2015 Bill gives powers to the anti-graft ombdusman to inquire into and investigate allegations of corruption occurring anywhere in the "National Capital Territory of Delhi", thus bringing Union government functionaries under its ambit.
The 2014 Bill said that the Lokpal can investigate any matter either suo-motu or based on a complaint in respect of public servants.
The 2014 Bill had also proposed to have under its ambit the Delhi Police, the DDA and four civic bodies as part of the public authority category. But the current Bill is more categorical in its phrasing, leaving no ambiguity as to its proposed purview, Mr Bhushan said.
Nowhere in the 2015 Bill is there an explicit mention as to whether the Chief Minister, other ministers shall be under its purview unlike the earlier proposed legislation.
Mr Kejriwal had ended his first term as Delhi Chief Minister in February 2014 within 49 days of assuming office over his inability to pass that Bill.