New Delhi: Sharp differences came to the surface at a meeting of the drafting committee for Lokpal bill today with the government strongly opposing proposals for inclusion of Prime Minister, higher judiciary and acts MPs inside Parliament under its purview.
At the meeting held under the Chairmanship of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, contentious issues came up for discussion in the committee for the first time.
Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan, both civil society members of the committee, said except on one issue of keeping citizen charter and public grievances under the jurisdiction of Lokpal, the government opposed the demands for bringing the Prime Minister, higher judiciary and the corrupt acts of MPs inside Parliament under the ambit of the Lokpal.
They said the government's proposals on Monday were "worse" than what it had proposed in its first bill, which had been "condemned and rejected". Kejriwal said even the latest bill of the government had kept Prime Minister under the purview of Lokpal but the government has gone back on it.
As no agreement could be reached between them on Monday, the government has decided to write to states and political parties to seek their opinion on these "issues of divergence" and get back to them at the next meeting on June 6.
He pointed out that the government's bill itself had a provision for bringing Prime Minister under the Lokpal and even now he was not beyond the purview of investigation on corruption issues.
"We only wanted that he comes under the purview of an independent agency instead of the agencies that come under the government which results in conflict of interest," Bhushan said. Kejriwal also rued "Prime Minister wants to be investigated by an agency like CBI, which is under him but not by an independent agency."
Besides Mukherjee, those who attended the meeting from the government side were Ministers P Chidambaram (Home), Sibal (Law), Salman Khurshid (Minority Affairs) and M Veerappa Moily (Law). From the civil society side, those present were Hazare, Shanti and Prashant Bhushan, Kejriwal and Santosh Hegde.
The joint Lokpal Bill drafting committee Monday decided to seek the views of states and political parties on "issues of divergence" on the proposed legislation as the government and civil society representatives had differing views on key issues, including bringing the prime minister and the higher judiciary under the ambit of the new authority.
After a three-hour meeting of the 10-member drafting committee, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said both sides "were constructively looking as issues of divergence".
He said the meeting had decided to write to political parties and state governments "as to what their views are" on some of the contentious issues.
Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan, two the civil society representatives on the panel, however, expressed disappointment over the government's response at Monday's meeting. "In the discussions, unfortunately, we found the response of the government not very reasonable... We are a bit disappointed," Bhushan said.
He said the two sides had differing views on bringing the prime minister and the higher judiciary in the ambit of Lokpal and some other issues. The government wants the "prime minister and higher judiciary out for different reasons", he said.
Bhushan said the government also did not want actions of MPs in parliament to be brought under Lokpal Bill and wanted the proposed authority to cover only officers of rank of joint secretary and above.
He expressed apprehension that the committee may not be able to finish its work of drafting the bill by June 30. Sibal said next meetings of the panel will be held June 6 and June 10, and stressed the government wants a strong and effective Lokpal Bill.
Source: PTI & IANS