The parliamentary panel on the draft Lok Pal Bill has concluded its work. The standing committee on personnel, public grievances, law and justice adopted its report, with a total of 16 of the 30 members having given dissent notes at some or other point.
The contentious issues were exclusion of the Prime Minister and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Group C and D government employees from the proposed authority’s ambit.
“We will have to see what is the final Bill the government would bring in but if the PM is not brought under the Lok Pal and the CBI is not made independent, then opposition parties would again join hands and raise it in the House,” said a senior member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who was part of the standing committee.
The panel is to present its report before the Rajya Sabha chairman by Friday, after which it would go to the government. Three Congress party members, Meenakshi Natrajan, P T Thomas and Deepa Dasmunsi, gave dissent notes indicating they wanted the Central Vigilance Commission to be brought under the Lok Pal and Group C employees, too.
Even after weeks of continuous deliberation, there was no unanimity on bringing the PM under the Lok Pal. The standing committee, in its report, has left the issue to be judged on the “good sense” of Parliament.
It has suggested options — first, to include the PM completely; second, to include the PM with safeguards on issues related to national security, foreign policy, nuclear and defence; third, to bring the PM in but only he demits office.
Nine of the total of 16 dissent notes were given on the issue of PM’s exclusion.
The BJP wants the PM to be brought under the Lok Pal’s ambit, but with safeguards. The Left parties want complete inclusion.
Lalu Prasad Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Shailendra Kumar of the Samajwadi Party also gave dissent notes for not giving reservations to scheduled caste, scheduled tribes and women in the proposed Lok Pal. Some Congress MPs joined them.
