Terming the ruling AAP’s 2015 lokepal Bill “mahajokepal”, former party leader Prashant Bhushan challenged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday to a public debate on the Jan lokpal Bill even as he warned of a stir outside Assembly on Monday when the proposed legislation is expected to be tabled in the House.
Also, he alleged that contrary to the claims made by the Arvind Kejriwal Government, the proposed legislation is “completely” different from its previous 2014 version. While AAP is claiming that the Bill is identical to the draft prepared during the Anna Hazare movement and the 2014 Bill that it had tried to introduce in the Delhi Assembly.
The senior lawyer said the agitation outside the Assembly will be held under the aegis of Swaraj Abhiyan, a group floated by Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav following their expulsion from AAP. The fledgling outfit, which is a self-professed “non-political” forum, has taken issue with the 2015 Jan lokpal Bill and has targeted AAP over it.
The senior Supreme Court lawyer claimed that the 2015 Bill increases the say of the Government in the appointment and removal of the ombdusman and brings under its ambit Union Government functionaries, among other “glaring” differences.
Although there was no immediate response or reaction from AAP on the gauntlet thrown down by Bhushan, the ruling party has rubbished the Supreme Court lawyer’s allegations that he was speaking against the said Bill at the behest of BJP.
“My track record is such that such allegations don’t merit any response,” retorted Bhushan. Slamming the Bill, Bhushan said, “We were shocked to find that the present Bill is against every principle on the basis of which the anti-corruption movement fought for the institution of Janlokpal. It proposes a lokpal that is to be completely controlled by the Government.”
Releasing a comparative study of the several lokpal Bills and Acts, including the Delhi Janlokpal Bill 2014, Uttarakhand lokayukta Bill, Centre’s lokpal Act and Team Anna’s Janlokpal draft, Bhushan said the Bill cleared by the current Delhi Cabinet was the “worst” of all.
The Delhi Government has not officially released copies of either version of the Bill. Rebel AAP MlA Pankaj Pushkar had on Saturday made the 2015 Bill public, which he claimed to have got in his capacity as a member of the Delhi Assembly’s Business Advisory Committee.
“Kejriwal should come and debate this in public. It will expose the fraud with the people of the country and the anti- corruption movement. If you have actually copied from Janlokpal Bill 2014 or Uttarakhand Bill, then what took you so longIJ Why did Arvind keep on tweeting that he is drafting the BillIJ” Bhushan asked.
Former Union law Minister and Prashant Bhushan’s father, Shanti Bhushan, too, hit out at Kejriwal and likened him to Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister of the infamous Hitler regime.”This Goebbels is the CM of Delhi. He had said he will slash the salaries of MlAs by half, but has instead raised it by two-and-a-half times,” charged Bhushan senior.
“I have already filed a petition in Supreme Court for a stronger and more transparent lokpal at the Centre and for its immediate appointment. What are they sayingIJ” he said.
Significantly, the 2015 Bill gives powers to the anti- graft ombdusman to enquire into and investigate allegations of corruption occurring anywhere in the “National Capital Territory of Delhi”, thus bringing Union Government functionaries under its ambit.
The 2014 Bill had proposed to have under its ambit the Delhi Police, the DDA and four civic bodies as part of the public authority category. But the current Bill is more categorical in its phrasing, leaving no ambiguity as to its proposed purview, Bhushan said.
Nowhere in the 2015 Bill is there an explicit mention as to whether the CM, other Ministers shall be under its purview unlike the earlier proposed legislation.
