Hazare to persuade Sonia on PM's inclusion in lokpal
Anna Hazare will try to persuade Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to include the post of Prime Minister in the lokpal when he meets her on Thursday, asking her why there is a problem in doing so when an honest person like Manmohan Singh suggests such a measure.
Anna Hazare will try to persuade Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to include the post of Prime Minister in the lokpal when he meets her on Thursday, asking her why there is a problem in doing so when an honest person like Manmohan Singh suggests such a measure.
His team members also suggested that the Prime Minister should show his commitment in this regard as he did on the issue of nuclear deal with the US.
Hazare on Wednesday said he will meet Gandhi and would apprise her about their stand on the lokpal bill.
"We will meet all parties...We will meet Sonia tomorrow and tell her if the Prime Minister is saying so, then what is the problem," he told reporters after arriving in Delhi to meet a host of political leaders on the lokpal bill issue.
He said the incumbent Prime Minister is an honest man. "The Union Cabinet belongs to India, the people in the Cabinet are our people. Then what is the problem in taking the decision? They should be able to take it for the country."
Hazare's response came as Singh remarked to top editors during an interaction that he had no hesitation in bringing himself under the purview of lokpal but many of his Cabinet colleagues feel that bringing the institution of Prime Minister under it will create instability.
His close associate in the lokpal bill campaign Kiran Bedi told PTI, "Well, the Prime Minister shall perhaps need to go by his personal call of conscience and take a stand like he did on nuclear power."
On Singh's remarks that the government will reach out to civil society but no group can insist that their views are the last word, Bedi said they were for an open debate and had approached the government for it.
"Every view has to be a reasoned one. Which is why Team Anna was constantly asking for an open debate to be called by the government members or come and listen to people to narrow the disconnect.
"People's perceptions are being widely published countrywide through reports, surveys and studies, which are speaking the widespread malaise of corruption. These too cannot be ignored," Bedi said.
She said while doing the rounds with political leaders, there were differences of opinions on the issue of Prime Minister being under the Lokpal.
"It will now be decided on the floor of the house. I am not quite sure how much will it be representative of people's demand. Because in our representative democracy it is presumed as such," Bedi said.
On the question of judiciary, she said the Hazare team had already proposed a parallel writing of an effective judicial accountability bill. "For the current drafted is poor, the government can correct the aberration," she said.