New Delhi: Ahead of the Lokpal committee meeting on Wednesday, in an exclusive discussion with CNN-IBN, Team Anna on Tuesday openly answered questions with regard to the Jan Lokpal Bill and also on the joint drafting committee set up for the formation of the bill.
Social activist Anna Hazare maintained the fact the Prime Minister and his office should be brought under the ambit of the Lokpal bill. He backed his demand by saying that if the PM does come under its purview, then the image of the govenrment will go up in the eyes of the public.
Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi, Prashant Bhushan, Shanti Bhushan and Santosh Hedge fully supported Hazare's demand for the PMO's inclusion in the bill with Kiran Bedi saying that if the Prime Minister is under the bill's ambit then he would ensure no corruption would prevail.
"When the Prime Minister is under the ambit of the Lokpal, he will doubly ensure that his team is also honest and will not be corrupt. Under the Preventoin of Corruption act, the Prime Minister is liable as well," said Bedi.
Civil Society member Prashant Bhushan said that there has already been much consolidation between the members of the committee on the inclusion of the PMO but not one sensible reason had been made on why the PMO should not be included.
Team Anna also clarified the working of the Lokpal Bill, maintaining that there was confusion on the powers and functioning of it.
"There is some misunderstanding amongst public over the role of the Lokpal. The function of the Lokpal will be to investigate the performance of the government and its functionaries. The purpose of the Lokpal is to constitute an Independent body, which will not take orders from the government, to look into the allegations of corruption," said Shanti Bhushan.
The Bill drafted by the government has been termed useless by the civil society members on grounds that it only looks into the misconduct and not corruption that is prevalent in the govenrment.
They seemed terribly upset with government's inaction towards the formation of the Lokpal saying that it has been forty years that the people have been waiting for this anti-graft bill.
"How much time will the Parliament take to debate the bill in the forthcoming Parliament session? People have been waiting for 40 years for this bill. We are pressurising the government to expedite the process," Shanti Bhushan said.
"We are pressurising the government because this is for the country, this is not blackmail," added Hazare.
On being asked about their support to Baba Ramdev's protest fast against black money, they were quick to say that they supported his demand but not his view of using weapons.
"Initially we were supporting Ramdev on the issue of corruption, we withdrew the support when Ramdev talked about 'Shastra' and 'Shaastra'," said Hazare.
Justice Santosh Hedge supported Hazare's statement saying that they only supported Baba Ramdev's movement against corruption and bringing back black money. However, they don't agree with other issues where he was involved.
Earlier the Congress had said that Anna was the face of the RSS and BJP and his fight against corruption was to demean the government. This statement upset not just Hazare but everyone who supported his fight, as he had earlier also said that he was not affliated to any political party but was concerned just for the country.
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