Nine political parties, including the Left, on Friday said the Lok Pal Bill tabled in Parliament was unacceptable. They said they may demand withdrawal of the Bill, if necessary.
The nine parties have decided to start a nationwide protest against the government’s version of the Lok Pal Bill from August 23. The parties are demanding more effective legislation to end corruption in high places.
“We may demand withdrawal of the government’s Lok Pal Bill, if necessary,” said A B Bardhan, the CPI general secretary. Soon after a meeting attended by these parties, it was decided they would express their views before the standing committee on personal and public grievances, law and justice discussing the Bill.
Interestingly, under the original plan, the BJP-led NDA was to take part in the protest as well. The NDA was in favour of calling for a bandh, not a mere protest. “We were discussing it with the Left parties. We wanted to make a call for a bandh but there were differences within the Left parties on the issue, so we decided to stay away. We might come together for protests in future,” said a senior NDA leader. The BJP has already started nationwide protests against corruption.
Friday’s high-profile meeting was attended by Prakash Karat, CPI(M) general secretary, N Chandrababu Naidu of TDP, H D Deve Gowda of JD(S), Ajit Singh of RLD, Debabrata Biswas of Forward Bloc, Abani Roy of RSP, M Thambidurai of AIADMK and Bhratruhari Mahtab of BJD.
Karat told reporters after the meeting the protest was issue-based and didn’t indicate the Third Front was forming an alliance. He said the nine parties would meet after August 23 to decide the next course of action.
The protests will have an impact in Tripura, where the Left Front is in power. There is a BJD government in Orissa and AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. None of the other political parties are in power in any state.
