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Manish Tewari opts out of Lokpal panel
Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 31
Manish Tewari may have apologised to Anna Hazare for his unsavoury comments that drew criticism not just from the Opposition but also within his party, yet internal party politics aided with some strong objections by Team Anna today forced the Congress spokesperson to recuse himself from Parliament’s Standing Committee looking into the Lokpal issue.

While the Congress did not make any announcement on membership of the committee, the BJP inducted two new faces in the panel. The main Opposition party is understood to have retained Harin Pathak and DB Chandre Gowda and brought in Kirti Azad and Arjun Ram Meghwal.

Ram Jethmalani and Bal Apte, who were members of the committee earlier as well, are expected to continue. Lok Sabha member Khagen Das will represent CPM on the panel that is being reconstituted after its term ended today. Considering the importance of the Standing Committee on Law and Justice in the current context, other parties may also go in for more changes in its membership.

Meanwhile, Tewari, who kicked up a storm when he accused the social activist of being encased in corruption from head to toe, said he was recusing from the Standing Committee as he did not want any controversy to cast a shadow on the deliberations of the important Bill. “I am all for a strong and effective Lokpal Bill,” he said.

Just two days before Anna was to go on his fast, the Congress fielded Tewari to launch a no-holds barred attack against the social activist. However, even as he went to deliver what clearly was a party directive, his choice of words against the evidently clean social activist landed him in trouble.

Tewari said speculations about his continuance as a member of the committee prompted him to take the step. “No one told me (to recuse),” he maintained even as Congress sources insisted that Tewari was specifically asked to do so to save the party and himself any further embarrassment.

The next meeting of the committee is scheduled to take place on September 7. Even if the Congress wanted him to stay taking into account his vast experience as a lawyer, sources said key Anna aides Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal, who met committee chairman Abhishek Singhvi, conveyed their misgivings about him as also former SP leader Amar Singh and RJD Leader Lalu Prasad.

While going ballistic against Hazare, Manish had also said that Team Anna comprised “armchair fascists, overground Maoists, closet anarchists funded by invisible donors”.

Though a formal announcement regarding the membership is expected tomorrow, Singhvi is likely to continue as the chairman. While Amar Singh’s continuance on the committee is not possible as he is no longer with the SP, sources say despite strong reservations by Team Anna, Lalu may continue as he presence will be of “ great help” to the Congress. Besides Amar Singh and Lalu Prasad, LJP President Ram Vilas Paswan and Vijay Bahadur Singh of the BSP are also part of the outgoing committee.