The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Wednesday opposed the draft Lokpal bill, approved by the union cabinet on Tuesday, saying it would give 'all powers' to the police.
SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD chief Lalu Prasad expressed their reservations in the Lok Sabha after the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) raised the issue of the alleged manhandling of one of its MPs by the prime minister's security personnel inside parliament complex.
"Lokpal will not be in your hands. It will go to the hands of police. Nothing can be done then against the police," Mulayam Singh Yadav said.
"These powers will go to the police, they will not respect us (MPs). Superintendents of police and district magistrates will send us to jail."
Asking the government to think over seriously as to whom it was going to give powers, he asked 'whether all this could be done under pressure of one man', apparently referring to Anna Hazare.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad joined him, saying that he had not raised any insignificant issue but the government was not paying attention and acting as if it had 'disappeared'.
"You are going to give powers by which everybody's throats would be cut," he said.
He said there should be 'consensus' before the bill is brought to parliament on Thursday.