Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha and her Punjab counterpart Prakash Singh Badal had both expressed their views that the prime minister's office should be kept out of Lokpal's purview.
With Manmohan Singh personally favouring bringing the post of prime minister under the ambit of Lokpal, the Anna Hazare team today suggested he should show his commitment in this regard as he did on the issue of nuclear deal with the US.
"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," Kiran Bedi, activist and Hazare team member, told PTI.
Her comments came as Singh remarked to top editors during an interaction that he has 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.
On Singh's remarks that 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," she said.
Singh said he would like to be "guided" by political parties on this issue. Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha and her Punjab counterpart Prakash Singh Badal had both expressed their views that the prime minister's office should be kept out of Lokpal's purview.
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