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Lokpal Bill goes before Cabinet next week
Anita Katyal
Our Political Correspondent

New Delhi, July 22
The much-debated Lokpal Bill will be presented before the Cabinet at next week’s meeting and introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament beginning August 1. “The Lokpal Bill is ready and will be placed before the Cabinet at its next meeting. We shall introduce it at the earliest in the monsoon session of Parliament,” Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal told mediapersons today.

Sibal’s announcement comes at a time when Team Anna is cranking up public support for its own version of the Lokpal Bill having rejected the government’s draft as being weak and ineffective. It has taken on Sibal by conducting a referendum on the anti-graft Bill in his constituency Chandni Chowk.

Minister for Personnel and Training V Narayanswamy was hopeful that the proposed legislation will have the full backing of all political parties after it is discussed by the concerned Parliamentary Standing Committee.

Both Sibal and Narayanswamy clarified that the draft Lokpal Bill drawn up by the government nominees of the joint drafting committee had been further amended to accommodate the views of other political parties. The ministers said the government had received several suggestions at the all-party meeting convened by the Prime Minister. This, Sibal said, was followed by separate meetings with the party leaders.

“The Bill, which will be presented to the Cabinet next week will reflect the concerns of other political parties,” Sibal clarified.

The two ministers refused to say whether the Prime Minister would come within the ambit of the Lokpal in the final version.

However, they pointed out that the five ministers on the joint panel, which included Sibal, were firm that the PM’s office should be kept out of the ombudsman’s purview.

Political parties are divided on this issue. UPA allies are also not on the same page. While the DMK wants the PM to be covered by the Lokpal, the Trinamool Congress and the NCP are not for it.

The BJP and the Left parties have made a strong case for bringing the Prime Minister within the Lokpal’s ambit but the BSP disagrees with it.

Sibal, however, dismissed the exercise being conducted by Team Anna in his constituency, saying it was neither a “survey or a referendum.”

He also pointed out that if Anna Hazare was unhappy with the government’s version of the Bill, he has the option of presenting his views before the standing committee when it takes up the legislation for discussion.

The HRD Minister also used this occasion to take a swipe at the BJP in the wake of the latest Karnataka Lokayukta’s report which has slammed Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa.

While telling the saffron party to stop being in denial mode about the corruption charges against the Karnataka CM, Sibal said its leadership should introspect and take a moral stand on this matter.

“Some national parties should move away from amoral positions,” Sibal said while pointing to the BJP’s habit of demanding resignations of ministers on the basis of allegations.