Mussoorie, October 10
Disagreeing with President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat today said he was not in the favour of the inclusion of the two top offices in the Lokpal purview.
Addressing the inaugural session of a seminar on ‘Combating Corruption’ at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration here Mr Shekhawat said even as he favoured the early passing of the Lokpal Bill, there was the difference of opinion on the inclusion of President and Prime Minister in the Lokpal ambit.
Only over a week back at the All-India Lokayukta Conference in Dehra Dun, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had suggested the inclusion of the top offices in the Lokpal loop.
Taking a tangent from the view, Mr Shekhawat said: “I must frankly admit that I am not in the favour of these suggestions as in my view, the institutions of the President and the PM are the very pivot of purity and sanctity of democracy”.
“Let us not create even an imaginary iota of doubt about the unimpeachable integrity of these high constitutional offices”, he said.
“This would lead to conceding the point that there could be complaints against them worthy of investigation by the Lokpal”, he said. “Even as such the possibility ought to be rejected, however, if such a situation arises, the Parliament may well be trusted to deal with it appropriately,” he added.
Expressing concern over the marginal number of cases investigated by the Lokayukts, actually leading to conviction in the courts, he said, the number was probably in single digit and that too only of officials at the lower rung.
Speaking at the gathering, which included former Chief Justice of India Justice J.S. Verma, Editor-in-Chief of The Tribune H.K. Dua, television journalist Nalini Singh, apart from young probationers at the academy, Governor of Uttaranchal Sudershan Agarwal said not just the politicians but everyone in the position of power were to blame for the widespread corruption.
Pointing at the constitutional protection to certain public offices, turning out to be the stumbling block in cleansing public life, Mr Agarwal said people had not justified the faith placed in them by the makers of the Constitution.
Transparency in electoral funding, early passage of the Lokpal Bill and the regulation of media ownership, would help in combating corruption, Mr Agarwal suggested.
Addressing the seminar earlier, Justice J.S. Verma said if the top was clean, about fifty percent of the work was done. He emphasised on the effective use of the right to know, to empower the common man.
