With the Samajwadi Party staging a walkout, the Government and the Opposition came together on Tuesday to pass the historic lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha. The country is now one step closer to enactment of a law which will have powers to probe even the Prime Minister.
The House approved by voice vote the lokpal and lokayukta Bill, 2011, which was already passed by the lok Sabha in December 2011. Since the original Bill has been amended, the lower House will have to pass it afresh on Wednesday.
When Samajwadi Party, outside supporter of the UPA, announced to stage a walkout, it became clear that the rest of proceeding was a mere formality.
Replying to the five- hour long debate by members, including leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley, law Minister Kapil Sibal, said it was a “historic” day and hoped that all States would pass similar legislations to set up lokayuktas modelled on this Bill. The Government accepted all but three recommendations of the Select Committee.
The accepted recommendations included not transferring a CBI official investigating a case referred by the lokpal. The selection process of the lokpal has also been changed. It now provides for appointment of the lokpal by a committee comprising the Prime Minister, the lok Sabha Speaker, leader of Opposition in lok Sabha and Chief Justice of India, besides an eminent jurist appointed by the President on their recommendation.
Among the recommendations not accepted by the Government was the provision that an accused public servant should not be given any chance to present his or her view before initiation of investigation by the lokpal. The Government said the accused official should be given a chance to be heard before initiation of formal investigation, but the “suspense” element would be maintained in case of search and seizure.
leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, while supporting the Bill, said he was happy that the Government had accepted all the changes in “this changed environment”. Jaitley expressed satisfaction at the Government accepting the Select Committee recommendation that all organisations accepting private donations should not be brought under the lokpal as it will overburden it.
Jaitley objected to the provision of religious-based appointments in lokpal, saying such kind of reservations was not permitted by the Constitution. “There is no scope in our Constitution for religion-based reservation in appointment of lokpal,” he said.
“My party will fully support this Bill. Whatever happened on December 29, 2011, should not be repeated and the anti-corruption law should be passed to restore credibility in politics, which has seen a drop in the recent past. let’s accept it and improve upon it. If we do so, we will try and restore the credibility of politics,” Jaitley said.
On the issue of bringing the Prime Minister under the purview of the new law, Sibal said the overall consensus was in this favour although there were some “discordant individual views” disfavouring it. lJP’s Ram Vilas Paswan, RJD’s Ram Kirpal Yadav and Congress’ MS Gill favoured lokpal with a “heavy heart”, but protested of bringing the PM under its purview saying it will bring down the morale of the person at the top most post of this country.
Ram Gopal Yadav of SP said he cannot support the legislation as it is not in the interest of the nation. One of the NDA allies - Shiv Sena also took the Samajwadi Party line and did not support. Supporting the legislation, Yechury demanded that the Government should consider bringing private players such as corporates under its purview besides charitable organisations along with foreign NGOs and also projects under PPP mode.
BSP’s Satish Chandra Mishra, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (TMC), Shivanand Tiwari (JD-U), V Maitreyan (AIADMK), Baishnab Parida (BJD), Yogendra P Trivedi and DP Tripathi (NCP), Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Independent), Ashok Ganguly (Nominated), YS Chowdary (TDP) too supported the Bill remarking it as historic.