Geo World

Grand alliance in India against corruption

NEW DELHI: An all-party meet on Sunday agreed that a “strong and effective” anti-corruption bill should be brought in the monsoon session of the Indian parliament with consensus on maintaining the supremacy of parliament and established procedures, the Times of India reported. The meeting was organised to discuss the Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen’s ombudsman Bill), a draft anti-corruption bill drawn up by prominent civil society activists seeking the appointment of an independent body to investigate corruption cases, complete the investigation within a year and envisages a trial in the case getting over in the next one year. At the Sunday meeting, there were differences on various provisions of the proposed legislation with a number of small parties, except AIADMK, favouring the inclusion of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but not the higher judiciary in the ambit of the anti-corruption ombudsman. The main opposition BJP, which kept its cards close to its chest on the contentious issues, said it has serious differences over the draft prepared by the five ministers of the joint drafting committee with regard to jurisdiction and process of selection and removal of the Lokpal. “The all-party meeting agreed that the government should bring before the next session of parliament a strong and effective Lokpal Bill following the established procedures,” said a resolution passed after the three-hour meeting at the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. At the meeting, there was consensus that setting up of the institution of Lokpal should not undermine the established parliamentary processes of enacting a law. The government’s consultations with political parties come two months after it engaged with civil society led by Anna Hazare whose draft demands the inclusion of the prime minister, higher judiciary, MPs’ conduct inside parliament in the bill. Setting the tone for the meeting, Singh said the government was committed to bringing a bill that will provide for “strong and effective way to tackle corruption in high places” but such an institution will have to work within the framework of the Constitution. The all-party meeting at Manmohan Singh’s official residence ended after discussions lasting nearly three hours. Opposition parties vouched for a strong bill while Manmohan Singh made opening remarks at the meeting in which he affirmed his government’s commitment to a strong Lokpal bill. Manmohan Singh had convened the meeting of all political parties in the backdrop of differences between the representatives of government and civil society in the drafting committee on certain provisions of the bill. Other contentious issues included bringing MPs’ conduct inside Parliament, CBI’s anti-corruption wing and lower bureaucracy across the country within the ambit of Lokpal, besides the mode of financing and the panel for selecting the ombudsman. The government is learnt to have presented to the parties a comparative draft of the provisions of the Lokpal Bill suggested by the civil society and those put forward by the five union ministers in the Joint Drafting Committee. Besides Singh, the meeting was attended by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, union ministers Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, M Veerappa Moily, Salman Khurshid and Pawan Kumar Bansal. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel (both NCP), and T R Baalu (DMK) were among UPA constituents to attend the deliberations. The Opposition was represented by BJP veteran L K Advani, Leaders of Opposition Sushma Swaraj (Lok Sabha) and Arun Jaitley (Rajya Sabha), NDA Convenor and JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav, S S Dhindsa (SAD), Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Gurudas Dasgupta and D Raja (both CPI), Lalu Prasad (RJD) and V Maitreyan and M Thambidurai (both AIADMK). S C Mishra (BSP) and Ram Gopal Yadav (SP) also attended the meeting.

Posted in: