Giving a big push to the Lokpal Bill, Rahul Gandhi today appealed to political parties to set aside differences to ensure its passage to fight corruption and dismissed suggestions that Congress drubbing in Delhi polls and Anna Hazare's fast were forcing the government's hand.
Flanked by Finance, Law and Personnel ministers, Gandhi addressed a special press conference at the Congress headquarters to make a strong pitch asking parties to set aside their differences for its passage.
"Our job is to give this country a powerful Lokpal Bill. We are 99 per cent there and what we need is one per cent from the political parties and we can actually finish and deliver Lokpal," he said.
With the Lokpal Bill slated for a debate in Rajya Sabha on Monday and apparently referring to Samajwadi Party's opposition to the Bill, Gandhi said, "all parties should together accomplish this bill. I appeal to all parties to support this bill.. This is in national interest."
Asked whether the government's push for the bill was to show to the voter something in the wake of the drubbing at the hands of the AAP in Delhi and Hazare's indefinite fast, he said "This is not...We have struggled for a while but at every step Parliament is disrupted. This has to do with corruption and this has to do with serious weapon to deal with corruption like RTI."
Gandhi said Lokpal is an "extremely important legislation" and is part of a larger framework to deal with corruption, of which RTI is the "single most powerful" weapon.
Again when asked whether government's sudden interest was
Because of electoral debacle, Gandhi said, "it is not a question of victory or defeat. This bill will help India.... this argument that we doing this as a result of elections is a bit unfair."
Asked whether Hazare would be convinced by the government efforts, he said, "our intention was to bring an anti- corruption infrastructure. We will keep doing this...Hazare is on fast, that is his perspective.
