The Bharatiya Janata Party has refused to answer specific questions raised over the last few days by Team Anna. Does it agree that Parliament must pass the jan lokpal bill of activist by August 30? Does the BJP agree that the bill can be the only effective instrument for ending corruption? Should parliamentary procedures be cut short to meet the deadline?
While there were no clear answers from those who talked to The Hindu, the party's top brass preferred the escape route by refusing to answer at all.
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj was not available for comment and her counterpart in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said: “I will give my views at a time chosen by me.”
BJP president Nitin Gadkari was sent the questions through e-mail to his political secretary, but there was no response .
However, some party leaders did speak, but evasively. When the former party president, Rajnath Singh, was asked about Anna Team's deadline, he said: “It is for the government to answer that question as the deadline has been given to the government. And how can I say what Parliament will do or not do and by what date?”
While he spoke in generalities about his party wanting a “strong and effective Lokpal bill,” he criticised the government Bill for being “toothless.” He was not willing to comment on whether the BJP agreed with the provisions of the jan lokpal bill— although Mr. Gadkari and Ms. Swaraj earlier stated publicly that the party did not approve of either the government Bill or the jan lokpal bill.
Mr. Singh added: “Arvind Kejriwal [of the Anna Team] has suggested that the government talk with the team; now it is for the government to take the initiative to break the deadlock that has arisen.”
Chief party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad refused to give a direct answer on the August 30 deadline. He, however, said: “The government has to clarify these things. The mess was created by the government; it must do something to clear it.”
There was an “outpouring of public anger” over the corruption issue and it was for the government to answer why it did not have in place an effective bill to deal with the problem, he said.
Mr. Prasad added that his party was for a “strong Lokpal bill in which the Prime Minister must be included; and separately a national judicial commission must be appointed for corruption in higher judiciary.” The party's criticism of the government Bill was that it also provided for penalties for frivolous complaints. “It has heavy penalties for whistleblowers. The BJP is opposed to this.”
‘Opposition kept out'
Another party spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said the government had engaged with Team Anna in the joint drafting committee for over 100 hours, keeping the Opposition out. Now it was for the government to sort out the matter. She too spoke in general terms about wanting a “strong and effective Lokpal bill” but refused to either reject or accept Team Anna's bill as “the alternative” that would cure the disease of corruption.
“All that I can say is the BJP will play a constructive role in Parliament to help adopt a strong Lokpal bill,” Ms. Sitharaman said.
Should the Standing Committee procedure be short circuited?
To this, she said once a bill was tabled, it became the property of Parliament. “It is Parliament's privilege to study it, understand it, change or modify it building on the draft before it.”
And finally, her view was the “current mess and deadlock” was “100 per cent” the government's responsibility. She did not think the obduracy and inflexibility of Team Anna was the cause of the impasse and the crisis.
Keywords: Anna Hazare fast, Jan Lokpal, anti-corruption movement, India Against Corruption, Manmohan Singh government, BJP civil society, Rajghat, Tihar jail, Ramlila Maidan
It is all in the expected lines... politicians, irrespective of the parties they belong to, will not be in a position to accept JanLokpal bill. Whether we like it or not - all parties are corrupt and the bill is for sure aiming to tie their ends to a big extent. BJP might be clever in putting the blame on Cong as they are ruling now but somewhere in the near future BJP and other parties have to make public their stand (atleast during the debate in the parliament). All Indians should stand united (irrespective of their party affiliation, religion, caste, language, race, economical condition, gender, etc) and keep fighting until a strong bill is passed.
Is there anyway we can get the audio recordings of the previous discussions of Anna's Team with the government in April
I am doing some tea-leaves reading, here. BJP was not against Anna Hazare in person and as a Gandhian (sic) Satyagrahi. Jantar Mantar event saw major contribution from RSS Swayamsevaks and as nearly as I can say without being biased, total Sangh Parivar. Starting from a large backdrop of Bharat Mata holding 'Bhagwa Dhaj,' Standard in the first pictures obtained. Later the image, suddenly dropped all her pretense and carried, instead, national, tricolors. RSS may not like my tea leaves reading. They are welcome to explain their side. Mohan Bhagwat is on record granting blessings to Anna. His word is good enough for me. BJP claims that they are independent from RSS. Tell me all about it. BJP president, Nitin Gadkari was not voted by card carrying BJP members. Mohan Bhagwat installed him. The same story can be extended about previous presidents. The most tragic aspect of BJP's turn-around is they like the idea of Lokpal being an agency above all.
Does our contitution not have suficient laws to tke action against corruption? Most VIPs are behind the bars for their act by the existing constitution. Our population is also guilty to have prevellance of corruption. It is also fact that corruption is most prevellent in the law enforcing agencies like pollice,CBI,CID, Judiciary ,Income tax, SALES TAX ALL LICENCING AUTHORTIES etc. Something has to be done for these segments to safeguard the public.
"WE ARE NOT AFRAID TO NEGOGIATE BUT WE WILL NOT NEGOGIATE OUT OF FEAR" was the words of President John F. Kennedy. It is unfortunate that Anna Hazare and his team are using many undemocratic methods to get their way. Putting pressure by demonstrating in front of MPs houses, sending written messages to MPs that they will not be reelected unless they table the Jan Lokpal bill and trying to bypass the parliamentary standing committee and the parliamentary procedures leads us to wonder whether Team Anna is not themselves corrupt. If they believe that it is we the people of India who need to through our collective wisdom why are they so adamant that their bill alone and within a certain time framework should be considered is against undemocratic.
One question: When the article quotes Mr. Prasad, party spokesperson clearly explaining that "strong Lokpal bill in which the Prime Minister must be included; and separately a national judicial commission must be appointed for corruption in higher judiciary." What more can one expect in terms of clarity in stand with respect to specific demands? I believe these two are the primary demands. Please help me understand.
Hardly surprising. All the patriotic upsurge in the Opposition now is due to the political ammunition incipient in exploiting this situation I doubt whether, had the NDA been the ruling coalition, there would have been a penny's worth of difference between the Govt response to the movement to that of the UPA
By refusing to take any stand on such a crucial bill, the party is showing its moral and intellectual bankruptcy. It should be worried that their legitimate space has been usurped by civil society representatives.
The government acted too arrogantly when Anna Hazare and co. asked for an all inclusive solution, including the opposition, since the government thought they could do a ramdev on anna, the opposition has every right to take the government to task. corner them, force them admit mistake. This is no time for politicking - but in this case, it would be best to corner the government to own up. if we look at the noises made by manish tiwari and mr. singhvi - the party is completely out of loop with reality. The youngsters are diametrically opposite views of the government's stands.
what is worse is that the governemnt is still playing cunning games by saying the jan lokpal bill and the government's version are the same - that's just soundbites aimed at media playing to the gallery. their insidous designs should be foiled
Enough is enough. Let the politicians open their eyes wide. Look at the neighbourhood. Its time people may usurp power for themselves. This happens whenever you have remotely powered governments in power and Unelected leaders.
Please Email the Editor