New Delhi:
The government will table the anti-corruption Lokpal Bill in the Lok Sabha at 2 pm today; the House is a warzone already, adjourned till then after much shouting and chaos through business since morning. Some political parties asked how "the media had got hold of a copy of the Bill first."
Many MPs began the morning by complaining that they had yet to receive a copy of the Bill; they began getting copies only by about 9 am and some of them now say they need more time to study the rather complicated document.
The 74-page bill has two parts: the first asks for a constitutional amendment, the second asks for the creation of a Lokpal or ombudsman at the centre, with parallel anti-graft agencies in states.
(Lokpal Bill: Some highlights)
Because the first part asks for a constitutional amendment, a two-third majority is needed. That means the support of opposition parties will be critical. The second part of the bill can be passed with a simple majority, which is doable for the UPA in the Lok Sabha.
To ensure that it does not trip, the government has removed the term 'minorities' from the Lokpal Bill where it asks for a 50 per cent quota for the nine members of the Lokpal, who will investigate charges of corruption against government servants.
The quota provision was designed as a carrot for politicians like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav, who have already indicated they do not support the Bill. Lalu Yadav tore into the Bill today demanding that quota for minorities and Mayawati's BSP said it did not support the Bill in its current form either.
The entry of the Lokpal Bill in Parliament has been impelled largely by activist Anna Hazare, who has held three hunger strikes this year for the legislation, and has announced a fourth on December 27.
Anna, who is 74, has said the Bill, described by Sonia Gandhi as "path-breaking" is in fact "useless". He has challenged the Congress President to debate the merits of the Bill with him and says his protest plans are on and will include sitting outside Mrs Gandhi's residence and that of her son Rahul Gandhi.
(Read: Debate Lokpal Bill with us, Anna dares Sonia Gandhi)
Anna's team says the Bill is "a betrayal of the people" because it creates an ombudsman with no real powers, best exemplified by the government's refusal to transfer the administrative control of the CBI to the Lokpal. The main opposition party, the BJP, agrees with this, but also finds the bill wanting on many other counts, and plans to ask for a series of amendments.
The BJP has made it clear that it's gearing up for a showdown in Parliament today and then next week, when the House is expected to debate and vote on the Bill on December 27, in a three-day extension of the current session.
The BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad said today, "The signs are not encouraging...I do not have a copy of the Bill but from what I hear it is a new Bill, with new content and new premises. We must get time to study it." Senior party leaders, he said, had told the government that while the BJP agreed to an extension of the session to debate the Bill, it did not agree with the contents.
(Lokpal Bill: BJP not content with what's on offer)The Congress says opposition parties are playing politics. "Today is a historic day, the Congress has fulfilled its promise and they just want to deprive us of the brownie points," said Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Shukla. He appealed to Anna Hazare to read the Bill for its merits.
The main issue of dispute between the government on one hand, and the activists and the BJP on the other, is the relationship between the CBI and the Lokpal or nine-member ombudsman. They point to the government's refusal to cede administrative control of the CBI to the Lokpal saying this signals the government's intent to influence investigations. If the CBI's budget, and the appointments and transfers of its officers are handled by the government, critics say, the agency will have limited autonomy.
Team Anna stresses that if the ombudsman has no investigative wing, its only powers lie in being able to refer complaints of corruption to the CBI, and receiving updates on them. Team Anna member Kiran Bedi said today, "Of what use has a body's power to merely inquire ever been, if the investigation that follows the inquiry will be controlled by the government?"
The government has, however, agreed to the BJP's insistence that the chief of the CBI will be selected in the future by a panel that includes the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and the Chief Justice of India.
Apart from finding that the CBI will still be controlled by the government, the BJP also finds fault with how the members of the Lokpal will be selected, as well as how they can be removed mid-term. In both cases, the party says, the government's say is overwhelming. The party also says that the Prime Minister has been provided with too many safeguards from investigation by the Lokpal. An inquiry against the PM needs the sanction of three-fourth of the Lokpal members in proceedings that are not public and cannot be accessed through the Right to Information Act.