Parl panel report on Lokpal legally complicated: BJP

BJP today expressed strong disasgreement with the Parliamentary Committee report on Lokpal Bill, alleging that it has been unnecessarily made legally complex and wondered if this was an attempt to make passage of the legislation difficult.

BJP on Friday expressed strong disasgreement with the Parliamentary Committee report on Lokpal Bill, alleging that it has been unnecessarily made legally complex and wondered if this was an attempt to make passage of the legislation difficult.

HT Image

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley pointed out that the Lokpal Bill report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel and Law and Justice had faced as many as 17 dissent notes on various occasions when the norm is that it should be passed with consensus as far as possible.

"There seems to be an attempt to make the report so complicated that passage of the Bill becomes difficult. I feel this is the intention behind some of the proposals in the report. It has ignored the political and social wisdoms and got involved in legalisms," he said.

Asked why the government would do so as failure to pass the Bill would mean facing the wrath of Anna Hazare, who has threatened to go on a fast, Jaitley said the reason could be the differences within the Manmohan Singh dispensation.

"This is a government of sulking individuals. It's depleting moral fabric will be further weakened," he said.

BJP will stick to its notes of dissent both inside and outside Parliament. It is opposed to complete exclusion of the
Prime Minister, Citizens' Charter and lower bureaucracy within the ambit of the Lokpal.

"This report will hurt the credibility of the government. It has given an additional tool in the hands of those who feel that this government does not keep its word," Jaitley said.

He alleged that the government has gone against the "sense of the House" expressed in the last session of Parliament on the Lokpal Bill.