Top bill: Opposition readies quiver to ambush govt over Lokpal

With Parliament scheduled to resume on December 27 to discuss the Lokpal Bill, the BJP and Left parties seem to be using the holiday weekend to finalise their respective positions on the government-proposed legislation.

BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj were understood to have worked out a list of objections to the bill. Sources in the party said on Saturday that Jaitley is expected to speak with party MPs on Tuesday morning on the amendments to the bill to be moved by the BJP.

A special message from Swaraj’s office was sent out to party MPs that those visiting their constituencies during the Christmas break ought to return to Delhi, by Monday night.

While BJP top bosses were against divulging details of their strategy, there were indications that the opposition would push for the CBI’s administrative activities to be overseen by either the Lokpal or another “overarching” body. While demanding “greater autonomy” for the CBI with regard to its investigative matters, the BJP had been insisting on insulating CBI appointments from the government.

Going by the dissent note submitted by six BJP MPs to the parliamentary standing committee on the bill, the party, it seems, would insist that the investigation agency be kept out of what they called “central government control”.

“The CBI has seriously compromised itself as an institution,” the dissent note, a part of the standing panel report, had said.
The party’s other objection pertained to the seeming central government writ over the states while deciding the framework of the Lokpal institution. The minority component in the 50 per cent reservation of seats for members of a future Lokpal, also continued to serve as a contentious issue between the BJP and the government.

Similarly, the CPI(M) and CPI appeared ready to dispatch their respective notices on amendments to the bill to the Lok Sabha secretariat on December 26. A senior CPI leader said they would demand a reduction in the number of areas where the office of the prime minister had been offered immunity by the present bill.

While the Left is fine with the prime minister being exempted on foreign policy and security issues it is not convinced on the subject of public order as well as atomic energy and space.
The Left parties are eager to have the CBI under the Lokpal so that its “independent decision-making ability” could be established.

According to a senior CPI(M) leader, the communists would pitch for the corporate sector to be brought under the Lokpal scanner. Post-2G spectrum scam, they feel such a need is imminent.