Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Lokpal bill tabled, Anna dubs it a ‘joke’

Lokpal bill tabled, Anna dubs it a ‘joke’

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Aug 5, 2011   modified Modified on Aug 5, 2011

-The Telegraph


The government today introduced the Lokpal bill in the Lok Sabha amid protests by Anna Hazare’s group on the streets and the BJP in Parliament.

While Hazare’s group dismissed the bill as a joke and burnt its copies, the BJP said that excluding the Prime Minister from the Lokpal’s ambit violated the constitutional scheme.

As soon as the minister of state for personnel, V. Narayanasamy, moved the bill, Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj rose to object, arguing that giving immunity to the Prime Minister violated the constitutional principle of equality.

She said every cabinet minister was equal and the Prime Minister could not be singled out for special treatment. Swaraj asked how the new legislation could provide immunity to the Prime Minister if the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act did not accord him special treatment.

She also cited that Pranab Mukherjee, as then chairperson of the parliamentary standing committee, had approved the Lokpal bill drafted by the former NDA government and asked what had compelled him to change his stance now.

Pranab then intervened to say: “I, as the chairman of the standing committee, submitted the report on February 16, 2002. Your government had more than two years to pass the bill. Why didn’t you bother to take up the matter till May 2004 when you were voted out?”

The group of ministers (GoM) on media later held a briefing to confront the BJP’s charge. The ministers argued that the legal issue of whether the Prime Minister’s exclusion violated the constitutional scheme could be decided only by the Supreme Court and not by political parties.

Home minister P. Chidambaram said: “The BJP knows that Article 14 does not exclude reasonable classification. But this will be decided by the court.”

Telecom minister Kapil Sibal accused the BJP of “political opportunism” and said: “They are not making a reasonable argument. Their double standards are for everybody to see, as they have kept the chief ministers out of the Lokayukta’s purview in states ruled by them. In Gujarat, a Lokayukta has not been appointed for years.”

Chidambaram said the government would give detailed reasons for its decision when the bill is discussed in Parliament.

Narayanasamy mentioned that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had himself offered to be included in the Lokpal’s ambit but the cabinet had ruled that out saying it could hamper government functioning.

The bill has been sent to the standing committee on law, headed by the Congress’s Abhishek Singhvi. Outside Parliament, supporters of Anna Hazare burnt copies of the bill at several places.

They had advertised 13 places in the National Capital Region alone where the copies would be burnt.

Sibal condemned the act as an “affront to Parliament”, while Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari likened the burners to those who used to burn copies of the Constitution of India in the past.

“There is a constitutional structure in the country. This structure has not fallen from above but has been put in place by the people of the country through their elected representatives,” Tiwari said.

“Everybody can give advice but it is only the government which can introduce a bill in Parliament and enact a law. This basic fact is understood by even a schoolchild. Either Anna and his friends do not understand, or they do not want to understand. The question is why they do not want to understand it.”  


The Telegraph, 5 August, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110805/jsp/nation/story_14337245.jsp


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close