'Team Anna trying to arm twist democracy'

The sharp differences between Magsaysay awardee Aruna Roy’s National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) and Team Anna turned vitriolic on Saturday when Team Anna described Roy’s proposal for a Lokpal Bill as unconstitutional.

Reacting to this, NCPRI’s senior member, Venkatesh Nayak accused Team Anna of trying to ‘arm twist democracy’.

Addressing the media persons at Ralegan Siddhi on Saturday, core member of Team Anna, Arvind Kejriwal, accused Roy of blocking all channels of communications with them regarding the Jan Lokpal Bill.

“Time and again we had called Aruna Roy for a meeting, but she has not responded. In fact, when Kuldeep Nayar had called us for dinner at his residence a few months ago, Roy stated that she did not want to meet or discuss anything with me. I was forced to return from the gate of Nayar’s house,’’ he said.

Kejriwal and others were in Ralegan Siddhi for a key core committee meeting of Team Anna.

Kejriwal said that contrary to popular conception, Roy’s NCPRI has not submitted any separate draft of the Lokpal Bill. “It is a flimsy concept note of some pages and has no depth in it,’’ he said.

Giving details about the various suggestions made by Roy for the  Lokpal Bill, Kejriwal said they were unconstitutional and not worth considering. “In particular, her proposal about Lokpal directing the local police to lodge a First Information Report (FIR), in case the Lokpal finds a junior officer guilty of corruption, amounts to contravention to the existing Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

Roy’s suggestions of changing the constitution to accommodate this is indeed ridiculous,’’ he said.

He also criticised the proposal of a separate grievance redressal mechanism as cumbersome and unpractical.
On the other hand, Venkatesh Nayak of NCPRI claimed that it was these statements by Kejriwal which reflected their “feeling of inadequacy as the proposals made by NCPRI are gaining ground by the day.’’

He rejected Kejriwal’s statement about blocking of channels of communication and said that it was the rigid attitude adopted by Team Anna, which made communication impossible.

“We have submitted a concept note and have backed it up with many proposed amendments to the government’s version of the Lokpal Bill. We believe in a democracy, all voices should be heard and every voice should be heard before taking a final decision,’’
Nayak said.