Lokpal Bill fiasco: BJP delegation to meet President

New Delhi:? Undeterred by the Congress' fierce attack over the induction of sacked BSP minister Babu Singh Kushwaha into its fold, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems determined to continue its protest against the government's handling of the Lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha.

A delegation of BJP MPs including veteran leader LK Advani is scheduled to meet President Pratibha Patil today to seek her intervention in what the party has called a "murder of democracy". The midnight ruckus in the Rajya Sabha has turned into a major flashpoint between the government and the opposition. The BJP alleges that the government manipulated proceedings in the Upper House during the debate on the Lokpal Bill to avoid a vote, given its weak numbers there. It also expressed its unhappiness over the way Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari conducted himself on that day following the latter's decision to adjourn the House sine die citing chaos and total impasse. But it restrained itself from a direct attack due to respect for the high office. Mr Ansari holds the office of the Vice President.

In a bid to keep up the pressure on the government over the Lokpal fiasco in the Rajya Sabha, the BJP has also asked its party units all over the country to observe a 'protest week' from January 3 to 10. Party leaders have said that the government's handling of the Bill would figure in campaigning in poll-bound states.

Both the Congress and the BJP have already traded charges over who was responsible for the Constitution Amendment Bill vis-a-vis the Lokpal being unable to go through in the Lok Sabha. The BJP maintains that it could have supported the bill had the government clarified its position on Lokayuktas. The present bill calls for the creation of Lokayuktas in states on the lines of the Lokpal, the national anti-graft ombudsman, something that the BJP and other opposition parties and even some Congress allies are vehemently opposed to claiming that it violates the federal structure of polity as enshrined in the Constitution. The Congress, in its defence and as a counter-offer, has alleged that the BJP is peddling weak excuses and scuttled the Constitution Amendment Bill simply because it had been mooted by Rahul Gandhi. The passage of the Bill would have accorded the Lokpal a constitutional status. (Read)

But the BJP's campaign against the Congress for not being serious about a strong Lokpal and broadly about corruption has been severely dented after it inducted former minister in the Mayawati government, Babu Singh Kushwaha, who was raided yesterday by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with irregularities in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scheme in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress immediately seized upon the opportunity to scoff at the BJP's anti-graft agenda, especially Mr Advani's recent and much-publicised nationwide tour against corruption.

"L K Advani in his rath yatra was apparently looking for these sort of people. We congratulate him for finding suitable candidates in UP," was the acerbic comment from Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi. (Read)

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