Does the government really want the Lokpal bill passed? -Governance Now

Does the government really want the Lokpal bill passed?

The weak bill and the reckless politicisation of house debates would suggest otherwise

Brajesh Kumar | December 28, 2011

TV grab of Kapil Sibal responding to leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj`s criticism of the government`s Lokpal bill in the Lok Sabha

After 43 years of dithering on the anti-corruption bill, the Lok Sabha finally passed the newest version of the Lokpal bill late in the evening on Tuesday. The bill, thus, is now past the first hurdle.

However, an united opposition thouroughly lambasted the government in the house for bringing a 'patently unconstitutional and deeply flawed bill' and for 'violating the spirit of consenus. Going by the uproar in Lok Sabha, chances are the bill will fall through in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling coalition does not have the required numbers. It has just 99 members out of a total of 245.

However, such an event is in keeping with the UPA's scheme of things for it has never been serious about a strong Lokpal. UPA spin master and the legal brain behind the bill, Kapil Sibal kept blaming the BJP for "stalling the bill" throughout the debate and betrayed the government's true intentions.

“Their politics is not to allow Lokpal; tell that (sic) government is bringing a weak Lokpal and then go to election-bound states,” said Sibal in parliament.

Is it really so, Mr Sibal? While certain MPs from the opposition benches could be guilty of stalling the bill, the larger apprehension expressed by the opposition about the bill being unconstitutional and weak is certainly not misplaced.

By throwing the ball in the opposition’s court UPA’s gameplan is to divert and channel the Anna-movement fuelled anger of the janta away from it. Once the bill fails to pass in the Rajya Sabha, it can tell people that it had championed the bill in the Lok Sabha and that it was the opposition which flexed its muscle in the Rajya Sabha and ran its efforts to the ground.

What UPA fails to realise is that the act it is staging is there for all to see. It will not take a Chanakya to see through its shenanigans and skullduggery.

It is quite apparent that UPA deliberately tabled a bill that was riddled with infirmities. Not only has the government introduced the bill under article 253 which make Lokpal binding on the states (with a nominal clause of consent) which undermines the federal structure, it has unnecessarily queered the pitch by providing for reservation for minorities in the bill which is in direct contravention of a supreme court order. Then there are the many structural issues - who would CBI report to? What exactly would be the role of the CVC? What would be the investigating arm of the state lokayuktas?

While we wait for the Rajya Sabha to decide on the bill's fate, the government has brazenly exposed its distaste for a strong anti-corruption body. In the words of CPM leader Sitaram Yechury, the government's introduction of the bill is rightly ' just a public relations exercise.'

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