The BJP bid to hijack the promised discussion on the Lokpal Bill in Parliament, following Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement on Thursday, came to nought on Friday as MPs, cutting across party lines, shot down the party's proposed motion as the basis for the debate.
Speaker Meira Kumar had called leaders and representatives of political parties for a meeting to try for consensus on how the Lok Sabha should go about a discussion on the issue suggested by the Prime Minister. The idea was that the sense of the House or the entire records of discussions should be forwarded to the standing committee so that it may take these into consideration when formulating its recommendations.
The BJP objected to the Speaker announcing her decision to start a discussion on the basis of a notice given by Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit. Leaders of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley then sent identical notices to their Houses demanding that theirs be the basis of discussion.
Later, they told the press that they would agree to either a substantive discussion entailing a vote on the basis of their notices, or the Prime Minister or the Leader of the House — Pranab Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha — making a statement, which could be followed by a discussion.
Following the meeting with the Speaker, the second suggestion was agreed upon — a discussion would follow a statement from Mr. Mukherjee. The motion proposed by the BJP was rejected at the meeting, by not only the Congress but several other parties.
Specific issues
The BJP notices flagged some specific issues that had become sticky points between the government and social activist Anna Hazare's group.
At a joint press conference, the two BJP leaders defended their motion, as it would force parties to “commit [themselves] to” and “clarify” their stand on these contentious points. Mr. Jaitley said it was time for parties to be specific and come out clearly on their stand.
Flip-flops
However, he did admit that the BJP itself was late in making its stand clear, as it wanted the government to first draft its Bill. At that time it had said, “We will comment on it at an appropriate time.”
“Our stand has been evolving,” Mr. Jaitley said, about the party's flip-flops on key issues like bringing the lower bureaucracy under one overarching Lokpal.
On August 16, BJP president Nitin Gadkari had said the BJP did not agree with the Jan Lokpal draft. On August 25 — days after the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh had declared its full support for Anna Hazare's agitation — Mr. Gadkari sent a letter to the activist, declaring his full support for the Jan Lokpal Bill.
Points highlighted
The BJP's proposed motion, which will not be taken up, highlighted several points — one, the inclusion of the Prime Minister under the Lokpal, excluding decisions related to the national security and public order; two, it favoured an appointment mechanism which is “independent of government domination,” (although in the BJP's 2001 Lokpal Bill only two of the seven members of the appointing committee were from the opposition); three, it should provide for an “independent and autonomous Central Bureau of Investigation.” (In theory, this is already the case. The BJP did not talk about hiving off any part of the CBI machinery to be put at the disposal of the Lokpal as proposed by the Anna group).
The BJP's motion also wanted a “framework for setting up Lokayuktas” in States with powers similar to the Central Lokpal. Mr. Jaitley added, by way of an explanation, that the States could “modify” the “model Bill” as the Centre might suggest.
It said it was not in favour of covering the actions of MPs in Parliament as they enjoyed immunity under Article 105 of the Constitution, a position the government has also taken and which the Anna group opposes.
On Article 311, which protects government servants against any summary dismissal, the BJP's thinking is also more in line with that of the government, as opposed to proposals in the Jan Lokpal Bill.
Finally, the government has already said the judiciary will be covered separately under a Judicial Accountability Bill.
The BJP has said it should be a National Judicial Commission — only a difference in name. Team Anna initially said it wanted the entire judiciary covered by the Lokpal.
