The Congress has boycotted the Lokpal Selection Committee meeting for the fifth time this year, asserting that it would continue to do so until the leader of the single largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha is given the status of a full-fledged member of the panel. The leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, conveying the demand.
The committee will set up a search panel for recommending names for the appointment of the anti-graft ombudsman, the Lokpal, and its members.
“The government continues to invite me as a special invitee to the meeting despite being aware of the fact that there is no provision under Section 4 of the Lokpal Act, 2013. Accepting this invitation to attend as a ‘special invitee’ without rights of participation, recording of opinion and voting in the procedure would be violative of both the letter and spirit of the Lokpal Act. “I am therefore, forced, once again to respectfully decline the invitation,” he wrote.
