Congress must convince its own and friends
Friends and members of the Congress are squarely responsible for the lokpal Bill running into trouble in the ongoing session of Parliament. Despite the Bharatiya Janata Party extending its support to a debate on, and eventual adoption of, the amended lokpal and lokayuktas Bill, 2011, which was brought to the Upper House on Friday, it appears that those like the Samajwadi Party are determined to torpedo the legislation. An inkling was evident on Friday. While the Samajwadi Party raised a din over the issue of price rise, a group of Congress MPs from Andhra Pradesh created a ruckus on the Telangana issue.
The Congress’s floor managers could do little to contain the disruptions by these members. This time the Congress cannot pass the buck to the Opposition as it had done — unfairly though — when no debate could take place in the Rajya Sabha during an earlier session when the Bill in its original form had come up. The net result is that the proposed anti-corruption law, which has been in the works for four decades now, continues to gasp for life. This has naturally led many, including Opposition MPs, to rightly suspect that the ruling coalition is not serious about passing the lokpal Bill. Parliament is almost halfway through its Winter Session which is scheduled to end on December 20, and a few more washout days such as those we have witnessed, are enough to stall the Bill yet again.
The establishment of the ombudsman mechanism is crucial to restoring the faith of the public in Indian polity. The Congress-led Government will do well accept all the recommendations made by the Select Committee on this matter. After the lokpal Bill was passed in the lok Sabha in December 2011, it was sent to the Rajya Sabha, which referred it to a Select Committee. The panel has now submitted a strong set of recommendations. The Government has accepted a few of them — it has agreed to the consensus appointment (as opposed to a Government appointment) of an eminent jurist, the fifth member of the five-member collegium that would select members of the lokpal, and has also shifted the powers of removing an erring lokpal from the Government to the Supreme Court. However, it has also rejected some key provisions — for instance, the Government has amended the Select Committee's recommendation so that errant officials will be provided a hearing, before the lokpal orders even a preliminary investigation of the case.
This takes away the element of surprise and allows the accused persons an opportunity to find an exit route before the investigating agencies can catch up. Also, it has brought in private organisations (except religious outfits) under the ambit of the lokpal even though the mandate of the ombudsman is limited to public bodies. The larger point here is that each of these recommendations and provisions deserves to be debated and discussed threadbare in Parliament. However, this is not possible with a section of the lawmakers constantly disrupting the proceedings of the House. If the Congress wants to pass the lokpal Bill, and not just make a show of it for public consumption, it must rein in the spoilsports and reach out to the Opposition by incorporating the recommendations the Select Committee has made.