Only parliament can pass Lokpal bill, says Advani

Only parliament can pass the anti-corruption Lokpal bill, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L K Advani said yesterday.The senior opposition leader said the party was committed to a strong Lokpal but has also pointed out the shortcomings in the Jan Lokpal bill of Team Anna. “We definitely need a strong and effective Lokpal, there are no two ways about it. But the fact remains that the Lokpal bill will be passed by the parliament only,” Advani told reporters here.“When we had met Anna Hazare and his team, we had pointed out some shortcomings in their version of the Lokpal bill which they admitted. Now I have no idea whether they have rectified any of those flaws or not,” he added.Hazare meanwhile continued to put pressure on the government and said there should not be any more delay in passing the anti-corruption legislation.Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a public meeting in Chennai, Hazare said a year had passed since they started their campaign for an effective ombudsman. There should be no further delay.“It is one year since we started our agitation, for three months they held meetings with five of our (Team Anna) members, but there has been no result,” Hazare said.“This is an insult to our country where Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev laid down their lives. ... this is taking more time, and it is not good,” he said.Hazare also blamed the Parliamentary Standing Committee that studied the anti-graft legislation for ruining it despite the “sense of the house” (parliament) on three of his key demands.“When I fasted in Ramlila ground, the prime minister gave it in writing that the Lokayukta, Citizen’s Charter and all officers from top to bottom will be brought under Lokpal, that it will be presented in parliament, and parliament will pass it unanimously.“But when it went to the Standing Committee, the committee ruined it,” he said. Earlier at the public meeting, Hazare said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was an honest man but is “remote controlled,” and urged people to start filling the jails from January 1 in support of a strong Lokpal.Addressing about 10,000 mainly middle-class crowd at a college ground in Chennai, Hazare drew repeated applause as he asked the youth to take the lead in the war on corruption.“From January 1 all jails in the country should be filled,” he said, and jocularly added: “You get breakfast and lunch there also!”Hazare spoke for the first five minutes in Hindi. But when the crowds became restive, organisers first translated what he had already spoken and then provided a line-by-line translation in Tamil.“I know that there is no Lokayukta in Tamil Nadu,” he said. But Hazare, visiting the state for the first time since starting an anti-corruption campaign in April, made no reference to Tamil Nadu politicians in the thick of corruption charges.He reiterated that he would begin his fast on December 27 if the parliament did not pass an effective Lokpal bill.Meanwhile, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the civil society’s monitoring of government work on Lokpal bill has reached its limit.Singhvi, who is the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee that examined the Lokapal bill, said the government and the panel had shown remarkable speed over the legislation.“The standing committee brought out the report on 24 complex issues with 30 members of 14-odd parties in the almost miraculous time of two-and-a-half months,” Singhvi said. “You have thereafter seen, despite the prime minister’s busy schedule, cabinet meetings are scheduled immediately...I think beyond this there is a limit how people not in governance must start monitoring how cabinet meetings are held,” Singhvi said.