Former Union minister and Lok Jan Shakti Party president Ram Vilas Paswan has said that sadhus, saints and their religious trusts and NGOs should also be brought within the purview of the proposed Lokpal Bill.
In an informal chat with reporters here on Thursday, Mr Paswan said that money was the root cause of all corruption and the problem could be solved to a great extent if transparency was introduced in handling money.
“I feel that religious persons, including saints, should not meddle in political matters and if they wish to, then they should directly involve themselves in politics,” he said in reference to yatras by Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravishankar.
To a question, he said that one-on-one job formula should be implemented to check the problem of unemployment in the country.
“Until everyone has got his share, one man should not be allowed to get more than his share,” he explained.
Mr Paswan said that in UPA-2, issues like corruption and inflation were getting more publicised and the Union government was unable to check this and defend itself.
“There is a definite lack of checks and balances in UPA-2, compared to UPA-1 when parties like Left, Lok Jan Shakti Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal used to keep a constant vigil on the programmes and policies of the government,” he said.