Should Shanti Bhushan withdraw from the Lokpal Bill drafting committee? -Governance Now

Should Shanti Bhushan withdraw from the Lokpal Bill drafting committee?

Ashish Sharma | April 18, 2011

It is still unclear whether the CD implicating Shanti Bhushan in a conversation with Mulayam Singh Yadav, in which he promises the latter that his son Prashant Bhushan could manage a judge for Rs 4 crore, is genuine. The CD surfaced just days after the former law minister became the co-chairman of the joint drafting committee notified by the government following the Anna Hazare-led agitation for a stronger Lokpal Bill. Both Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan, who are among the five civil society nominees in the committee, have dismissed the CD as a forgery. So has Anna Hazare and the other members of the agitation.

However, the question arises whether Shanti Bhushan should withdraw from the committee until the CD is conclusively established to be a fake. Those who advocate this course of action believe that the anti-corruption crusade should not suffer on account of any such suspicion cast on any of its members. And in any case, Shanti Bhushan can continue to provide his valuable inputs even if were to remain outside the committee.

On the other hand, many believe that there is much more credence in the reports of forensic reports having found the CD to be tampered. Prashant Bhushan has already pointed fingers at Mulayam Singh Yadav's ousted lieutenant Amar Singh for having had a role in producing the "forged" CD. Coupled with the centre's concerted moves to nullify the success of the Anna Hazare-led agitation, the surfacing of the CD appears a little too pat. The committee has just a couple of months to produce its draft and if Shanti Bhushan were to opt out he may not be able to clear his name conclusively to meet the deadline.

Arvind Kejriwal, among the brains behind the agitation, had warned right from the outset that the government would everything in its capacity to get at least one of the Bhushan father-son duo out of the committee. "The government does not want tough negotiators on the panel," he had said when much ado was sought to be made about the father-son duo have cornered two of the five civil society positions, "The government wants us to fall into this trap. We will not fall into this trap. We want our best negotiators on the panel. We want both Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan on the panel."

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