The Congress party on Wednesday virtually declared redundancy of the joint committee to draft a strong Lokpal bill on a day when social activist Anna Hazare sat on a fast protesting the crackdown on Baba Ramdev’s protest.
Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said civil society representatives “could not be the alternate sources” for lawmaking including the key legislation.
“There is a constitutional scheme of things needed to be adhered to, including taking the views of Parliament while deciding on legislation. Whatever they say could be suggestions for draft but it can’t be the legislation. This is not a banana republic. We are working under the Constitution of India,” she said.
Congress spokesperson side-stepped questions whether the Prime Minister should be under the proposed Lokpal, noting that the Constitution review committee under Justice M.M. Venkatachaliah was against it.
The remarks of Ms Natarajan came a day after Mr Hazare and other representatives of the civil society boycotted a scheduled meeting but made it clear that they would participate in future meetings.
Congress leader and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is the chairman of the committee and former law minister Shanti Bhushan is its co-chairman.
Ms Natarajan also tried to drive a wedge between Mr Hazare and Baba Ramdev, saying that the Gandhian appears to be unaware of the call for armed rebellion given by the yoga guru.
Ms Natarajan also dismissed as “unacceptable” Anna Hazare’s statement that what he was fighting the “second freedom struggle”.