Chidambaram on Lokpal Bill

BJP wanted to scuttle the Lokpal Bill, says Chidambaram
Watch Home Minister P Chidambram's address to the media on the Lokpal Bill that could not be passed in the Rajya Sabha.

People are beginning to realise law making is complex exercise that needs to be left to law making bodies.

There will be maximum of three or three refinements. No way 187 amendments can be accommodated. It would become an unrecognisable bill. 

We are not redrafting the bill. We may refine and redefine a clause to accommodate the TMC.

Why should I comment on Team Anna drawing a small crowd or a large crowd?

The government bent backwards to accommodate the BJP. We accommodated Sushma Swaraj, Laloo Yadav in Lok Sabha. 

I don't want to comment on what Kiran Bedi said.

We were taken by surprise by the TMC. They changed their position after we thought we convinced them in the Lok Sabha.

I have never come across a situation where a bill is passed in one House with a few amendments gets stuck in another House because the same parties now wanted 187 amendments.

Congress voted for the Lokpal Bill. BJP voted against it. Record shows who supported it and who opposed it.

In the Budget Session, we have to make a set of changes that are acceptable to a majority. It's a long and hard session ahead.

RJD MP was a sideshow. The real obstacle was the BJP.

Fortunately, the bill is safe. It is not defeated. We will take it up in the budget session.

Never heard of 187 amendments in the Rajya Sabha. Can't recall any such instance.

I do not  know who fixed with whom. But there was no fixing between Congress and BJP. We were rivals and we are rivals. But BJP got into a understanding with two or three political parties to come up with 187 amendments.

After BJP came up with 187 amendments, even if we had accepted them, the bill could not have been passed on the December 29th or the 30th because the bill would have had to come back to Lok Sabha.

We had the numbers in Lok Sabha. So we passed it. We did not have the numbers in Rajya Sabha. So the bill could not be passed there.

BJP stuck to the ingenious tool of 187 amendments.

BJP did not support the Lokpal Bill. They did not have the intention to pass the Lokpal Bill.

Government has prerogative to make amendments