After Ramdev Baba episode, Lokpal bill is in dire straits

The government on Monday rejected Anna Hazare group's demand for televising proceedings of the joint Lokpal Bill drafting committee, asserting that it was ready to go ahead with the Bill with or without participation of the group in future meetings.

It also took offence to abuses heaped on Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, saying this kind of discourse is not expected from someone claiming to represent civil society. (Swami Ramdev had called Sibal a liar and accused him of conspiring and cheating.) " We reject in the strongest possible terms these allegations.

This kind of language is just not acceptable. We also deal with civil society but never experienced such abuses. We hope that in future this kind of discourse will not be conducted in public," Sibal told a press conference after attending the Lokpal drafting committee meeting, held here despite the group's boycott. He also took on record BJP President Nitin Gadkari's observations questioning how a few nominated members of civil society were riding roughshod over Parliamentarians' rights.

Gadkari had further asked the government not to undermine the Constitution and institutions of democracy by involving the civil society in drafting the Bill as " laws are to be made by Parliamentarians." Rejecting the five issues raised by senior advocate Shanti Bhushan, co- chairman of the Lokpal committee, as " extraneous" to the drafting job, he said drafting of the Bill can not be done by posing questions and answers and that is why the committee was constituted to resolve issues through discussions.

However, if the group continues to boycott the meeting, the five ministers on the committee will continue to work on the draft, make it ready by June 30 and bring it before Parliament in the monsoon session, irrespective of the group's participation, he said.

The panel's next sitting is on June 15 and it is up to the group to attend or not, he said. Sibal taunted the group, saying that, on one hand, it wanted to complete the drafting by June 30 and, on the other hand, it tried to delay the drafting by boycotting the meeting. " The committee's mandate is to sort out issues and give a good draft and not keep exchanging letters," he asserted.

As regards many parties and chief ministers resenting the committee chairman Pranab Mukherjee seeking their views on some ticklish issues on the Lokpal Bill, the telecom minister said the government does not take opinion of parties while drafting Bills. It had done so only because it felt that this was an important legislation and hence why not seek their opinion, since the government was already taking into account the civil society's views.