New Delhi:
Congress spokesman and Lok Sabha MP Manish Tiwari has opted out of the Standing Committee that is reviewing the Lokpal Bill. Tiwari has been most famous recently for his stringent criticism of and subsequent apology to Anna Hazare, the man in the headlines for the last two weeks.
Mr Tiwari said he supported "a strong, effective Lokpal Bill, but I do not want any controversy to cast a shadow on the deliberations of this important bill." So, he said, he had decided to recuse himself from the standing committee - which is made up of 31 MPs from both Houses of Parliament. "Media reports suggest that some would object to my appointment," Mr Tiwari said.
Tiwari came in for widespread criticism for saying that anti-corruption crusader Anna was "steeped in corruption from head to toe"; the criticism came not only from the opposition, Anna's supporters and people at large, but also from many in his own party. A chastised Tiwari kept a low-profile during Mr Hazare's 13-day fast and towards the end of it, apologised.
"I know some of my recent utterances have caused hurt to Mr Hazare. I regret the same and I would like to appeal to him as a citizen of this country to end his fast...In the course of political cut and thrust, certain things are inadvertently said which cause pain," Mr Tiwari had said.
Anna Hazare's team was not impressed; the anti-corruption crusader's lawyer Milind Pawar has said a case of defamation will be filed against the Congress MP in a Pune court next week.
The term of the current Standing Committee on Law and Justice, chaired by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi, ends today. It will be reconstituted by the end of this week with 10 Rajya Sabha and 21 Lok Sabha MPs, and the next meeting of the panel is scheduled for September 7. Members are nominated to the panel based on party strength and party recommendations.
Sources say members of Anna Hazare's team met Dr Singhvi yesterday and objected to the presence of Mr Tiwari, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Yadav and former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on the committee.
Mr Singh is unlikely to be on the new panel since he was there as a member of Mulayam's Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party and has since severed ties with it. The SP is expected to nominate a new party member. Lalu Prasad will decide whether he will remain on the panel or not. The Congress will now need to nominate someone to replace Mr Tiwari.
Dr Singhvi, who is expected to continue as chairman of the panel, did not offer comment on Mr Tiwari's recusal.
The BJP is expected to nominate Lok Sabha MPs Harin Pathak, Arjun Meghwal, Kirti Azad and Chandre Gowda and Rajya Sabha members Ram Jethmalani and Bal Aptei to the panel. Mr Gowda had drafted Karnataka's Lokayukta Bill.
On Saturday, both Houses of Parliament approved, by a "sense of the House", the inclusion of several points that Anna Hazare had wanted in the new anti-graft bill - the Lokpal bill. The 74-year-old Gandhian sat on a 13-day hungerstrike insisting that he would end it only when Parliament passed his must-have demands. The points approved by Parliament, along with the government's version of the Lokpal bill, Team Anna's Jan Lokpal Bill and other bills in the public domain will now be reviewed by the Standing Committee on Law and Justice, which will then file a report with recommendations on the new law.
(
With PTI inputs)