Differences between the government and social activists led by Anna Hazare on the inclusion of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the lower bureaucracy have created some uncertainty over the Lok Pal Bill to be tabled in Parliament next week.
The Cabinet is to meet on Monday to discuss the Food Security Bill and also debate whether the Lok Pal Bill can be finalised and tabled in the House in the context of the Standing Committee recommendations and the threats by Anna Hazare to launch a jail bharo andolan if the Bill was not tabled in Parliament.
The government is divided. Some United Progressive Alliance (UPA) MPs feel the government should just take the bit between its teeth, have an extended session of the House and pass the Bill.
“The Hazare group is intent on launching an agitation to claim ownership of the bill, and this is something the government cannot avoid. But what the Parliament can do is complete its work,” said an MP who has been an interlocutor between India Against Corruption (IAC) and the government.
Top ministers, however, were not quite hopeful either about extending the session or about hustling the Lok Pal Bill through Parliament. “It is an important legislation and we would not like to rush through it,” said V Narayanswamy, Minister of State in PMO.
Some sticking points still remain. Many of Hazare’s supporters themselves have raised doubts about the wisdom of their demands to include the lower bureaucracy under Lok Pal and to turn Lok Pal into a ‘super CBI’.
The principal opposition party BJP wants the three wings of CBI to be separate, and one of them, the anti corruption wing, be appended to Lok Pal.
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According to former IPS officer and IAC core committee member Kiran Bedi, the CBI should remain in one piece. This is what the Standing Committee also says. But the agreement ends here. While keeping CBI whole, IAC wants the Lok Pal to have administrative control over it thus going beyond the Vineet Narain judgment of the Supreme Court which passed on the powers of superintendence over CBI from the government to the Central Vigilance Commission.
Prashant Bhushan, a member of IAC core committee, says: “We want Lok Pal to have administrative control. This vests with the government now. This would mean powers to make postings, transfers and promotions.”
Prakash Singh, former director general of police who spearheaded a litigation for police reforms with Prashant Bhushan as his lawyer, says that it is fine for Lok Pal to have administrative control over CBI, but it is useless without financial and administrative resources for that. “Lok Pal would have to approach the government every time the CBI needs something,” Singh says.
The CBI would require at least 35,000 personnel (according to the Standing Committee) if Anna Hazare’s second demand for inclusion of the lower bureaucracy was accepted. At present, CBI has a strength of just 2000 personnel.
Singh says that several parliamentary reports in the past have sought financial, administrative and legal resources for the CBI to empower it, but this was never done. Now, the agency could be exposed to harassment or pressure tactics from Lok Pal instead of the government, says Singh.
Says Bhushan: “I don’t agree with this. Lok Pal must have administrative control over CBI.”
The Standing Committee has already rejected it. Now, it remains to be seen what the government’s final Bill would say.
Lower Bureaucracy:
On the issue of lower bureaucracy, the Standing Committee has already ruled it out saying that the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) would be the body to look after such offences.
Singh says that the inclusion of the lower bureaucracy would see Lok Pal come down under its own weight.
Meanwhile, Aruna Roy and members of NCPRI, which is seen as a rival group to Anna Hazare, are launching a campaign against including grievances under Lok Pal. Grievance redressal mechanism should be separate, the NCPRI says.
Anna Hazare wants the grievance redressal mechanism as well as investigation into corruption under Lok Pal, while the government is ready with a grievance redressal Bill. There are those who feel that the mechanism can be added as a chapter to the Lok Pal Bill.