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PM restores Aruna Roy's place in Lokpal debate by Subodh Ghildiyal


Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday restored NAC member Aruna Roy's place in the Lokpal debate, telling Parliament that along with Anna Hazare's Jan Lokpal bill, it would also discuss the drafts by Roy and JP Narayan of Loksatta.

The comment came a day after BJP dislodged Roy as the reference point for the new Lokpal bill by limiting the reference to non-government input to Jan Lokpal bill in the resolution passed by an all-party meeting. The Centre sought to put "Jan Lokpal" and "civil society" as separate inputs for the new draft in the four-line resolution. BJP vetoed the mention of "civil society" and retained only Jan Lokpal.

The opposition's gambit was aimed to give Hazare exclusive authorship of the Lokpal bill, in line with its decision to back Hazare's fast to embarrass Congress on the corruption front. In contrast, Roy has been critical of the Hazare draft which seeks to create an omnipotent ombudsman with jurisdiction covering entire top and lower bureaucracy, judiciary and political class. Her aggression only increased in the face of frenzied clamour for Jan Lokpal bill, giving the government some rare support in tough times, reasoned on issues of procedures and Constitution.

The government did not return the favour when it easily agreed to the language of the resolution as pushed by the BJP on Wednesday.

However, the PM restored the balance a day later when he told Parliament that the renegotiated Lokpal would be multi-sourced. He mentioned Roy twice in his speech as an important input for the bill. Roy's draft will also be discussed in Parliament along with the Jan Lokpal bill on Friday.

Civil society observers linked Roy's aggression against Jan Lokpal bill to her being in the Sonia Gandhi-chaired NAC and thus being close to the establishment. But Roy rebuffed the charges by saying she was opposed to Hazare's methods of forcing policies by show of strength and bypassing Constitution which was dangerous for democracy.