With the inclusion of the prime minister under the Lok Pal Bill still a ticklish affair, the government is soon expected to call an all-party meeting to seek views across the political spectrum.
This became clear after PM Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi had a meeting with top party leaders today, favouring such parleys against the backdrop of widening differences between the government and the civil society representatives led by Anna Hazare.
Grappling with this issue and other sensitive matters like Telangana, the Congress Core Group headed by Gandhi had this second meeting after its two-hour long deliberations last night. The meeting also discussed the Telangana issue.
The Hazare camp has been pitching for the inclusion of prime minister and the higher judiciary in the proposed Lok Pal Bill during the meetings of the joint drafting committee, which will be meeting on June 20 and 21.
Senior minister like Chidambaram and several top party leaders have been maintaining there was divergence of views on the prime minister’s inclusion.
They say that since the Congress is leading the coalition, it has to take everyone together. Another suggestion was that the PM could be brought in with specially carved exceptions or after he demits office.
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Congress leaders have been maintaining in private that bringing the PM under the ambit of Lok Pal is fraught with serious consequences and a decision in this regard needed to be taken keeping in mind a long-term view.
The refrain of Congress and the government is that the parliament is supreme and Anna Hazare and his team should not adopt the attitude of “my way or the highway”.
There is a view in the government that if the Hazare team is insistent on certain provisions, they have to get the parliament’s support as the government has done what it felt right in its wisdom.
That the government and Congress wanted to involve other parties was evident when HRD minister Kapil Sibal recently said political parties could have different views on the matter.
Lasting for more than two hours, today’s meeting also discussed the Telangana issue as statehood gains momentum ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament. Sources said the issue was discussed at length, but no decision was taken.
Cover PM on demiting office: Sibal
HRD Minister Kapil Sibal today said while the government was opposed to the PM’s inclusion under the Lok Pal bill, it was open to the idea to cover him once he demits office.
“Within the government, we feel prima facie, the PM should not be covered. But, we want to make sure that if he demits office, he should not be exonerated from prosecution,” Sibal told Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN’s Devil’s Advocate. At the same time, he said the government would decide on the issue after the draft bill went to the Cabinet.
Sibal’s comments came two days ahead of the the final meeting of the joint drafting committee. He said five ministers in the joint drafting committee were willing to be persuaded to bring the PM under the ambit of the anti-corruption legislation if the civil society members gave a compelling argument. While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has publicly stated he was open to the idea of bringing the post under the Lok Pal, Sibal said it was not the question of “an individual, but an institution.” He added, “Which Prime Minister in office anywhere in the world has been prosecuted in the world? Please tell me, give me an example.”
“Hazare is like the ‘Pied Piper of Hamelin’. The tune is lilting and people were upset with corruption just as government is. We want to deal with it. But those who follow him, where they say corruption should be deal with, do not even know what the Lokpal Bill is,” he said.