Team Anna burns lokpal bill draft, govt cries insult

The government today slammed the burning of copies of the lokpal bill by Anna Hazare and his team members as "an affront to Parliament". HRD minister Kapil Sibal said that if Hazare had differing views, he should present these before the standing committee of Parliament which will look into it.

The government on Thursday slammed the burning of copies of the lokpal bill by Anna Hazare and his team members as "an affront to Parliament".

"It's an insult and an affront to Parliament," human resource development Kapil Sibal told reporters.

Sibal added that if Hazare had differing views on the lokpal bill, he should present these before the standing committee of Parliament which will look into it.

As government introduced the lokpal Bill in the Lok Sabha, Hazare and his supporters burnt copies of what they called the "anti-poor, anti-Dalit" law for excluding the office of the prime minister from its purview.

Hazare and his supporters set fire to copies of the bill in Maharashtra's Ralegaon Siddhi while his supporters Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and Kiran Bedi led the protest in Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi area in Ghaziabad, a satellite town of Delhi.

Hazare has threatened to go on fast on August 16 to protest the exclusion of some recommendations made by civil society representatives from the bill.

The proposed legislation does not bring under the purview of lokpal the prime minister when he holds office. But once he demits office, he or she can be investigated by lokpal for any wrongdoing as prime minister.

It also excludes from the lokpal's ambit the judiciary and any action of an MP in Parliament or any parliamentary committee.