This is much worse than the earlier Bill, say Kejriwal and Bhushan

Representatives of civil society Arvind Kejriwal and advocate Prashant Bhushan on Monday accused the government of going back on its word and opposing bringing the Prime Minister under the purview of the Lokpal on the ground that it would render him dysfunctional if put under probe.

“This is much worse than the earlier Bill, which the people had rejected, where the Prime Minister was put under the Lokpal,” they told journalists after a meeting of the Joint Drafting Committee on the Lokpal Bill.

Rejecting the government opinion, they wondered at the change in stand, particularly when the Prime Minister was willing to stand scrutiny by an independent authority. They said the Prime Minister was not immune, as the CBI could probe any charge of corruption against him, but the fact was that the investigating agency was under the Prime Minister himself.

Since the Prime Minister held several portfolios, leaving him out of the purview of the Lokpal would amount to keeping all these Ministries out of the jurisdiction of the Lokpal.

Similarly, the government was opposed to placing the higher judiciary, the defence services, the CBI and the CVC and the conduct of MPs inside Parliament for investigation by the Lokpal. It preferred self- regulation to take care of issues of corruption in the higher judiciary and in Parliament.

The government took the stand that the judiciary should be dealt with under the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, which was pending in Parliament, and turned a deaf ear to the contention that the judiciary too was not immune and self-regulation could not be relied upon in a situation of serious conflict of interest. Similarly, acts of corruption relating to casting a vote or seeking cash for questions suffered from serious conflict of interest and could not be effectively dealt with through self-regulation, they said.

All that the government was willing was to allow the Lokpal to probe acts of corruption of MPs committed outside Parliament, they said.

“If everything will amount to violation of the Constitution, then what is left to be probed by the Lokpal,” they quipped, that too when the whole business of self-regulation had not worked all these years.

Even with respect to the bureaucracy the government was willing to place just about 2,500 officers of the rank of joint secretaries and above under the purview of the Lokpal and they agreed to bring public grievance redress under the citizens charter, for which modalities would be worked out.

All the 10 members of the Joint Drafting Committee were present at Monday's meeting.