The Union cabinet on July 28 approved the draft of the anti-corruption Lokpal Bill, to be presented in the monsoon session of Parliament beginning Aug 1, information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni said. The draft bill excludes from its ambit the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India and MPs for their actions inside the house, reports said. Prime Minister will come under purview of lokpal after he demits office. This is a major disappointment to the anti-corruption campaign led by civil rights activist Anna Hazare.
A 10-member committee, comprising five ministers and five civil rights leaders, was set up in April to draft the bill, but the two sides prepared separate versions following disagreements over key issues.
Reacting to reports that the Prime Minister would be excluded from the ambit of the Lokpal bill, civil society leader Kiran Bedi said the group would react officially after details were available. “It is not the end of the civil society movement, but the beginning,” she told reporters in New Delhi.
The Anna Hazare team however dismissed the Lokpal Bill approved by government as a “cruel joke” which will be struck down as unconstitutional by Supreme Court “within a minute” and said the Gandhian will sit on an indefinite fast from August 16 demanding its withdrawal. Accusing the government of bringing a “fractured lokpal” for corporates and to “fool” people, the activists said they may challenge the bill if passed by Parliament in its present form by keeping the Prime Minister out its ambit.