BJP takes Lokpal battle to President

The BJP launched an offensive against the UPA government on Monday for its “handling” of the Lokpal.

“The Congress is complaining about 140 amendments to the bill in the Rajya Sabha. But the Lok Sabha passed the bill when 76 amendments had been moved,” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

As part of its “save democracy” campaign, BJP MPs will visit President Pratibha Patil on January 5 and seek her “intervention.”

According to Prasad, the Trinamool Congress, too, had given notice for amendments in the upper house on December 28 while the debate on the bill began only a day later.

“We received on December 28 copies of the bill as passed by the Lok Sabha the day before. Why did the debate begin on the 29th?” Prasad said.

Ascribing “government design” to the “turn of events,” the BJP maintained that while the winter session of Parliament was extended by three days to discuss the Lokpal Bill and the

Whistlerblowers Protection Bill, even the supplementary agenda for the Lokpal debate in the Rajya Sabha was “circulated in the last minute”.