The Congress Working Committee on Friday told the government not to appear weak and succumb to pressures from the “self-appointed representatives” of civil society.
The party’s highest policy-making body expressed its views ahead of an all-party meeting called by the government on a draft Lokpal bill here on July 3 and Mr Anna Hazare’s decision to sit on an indefinite fast for a strong Lokpal bill in New Delhi from August 16.
The message is loud and clear. Don’t mishandle the issue. The Congress had virtually disapproved the government managers’ strategy to placate Baba Ramdev by sending four senior ministers to the airport here and the police action at Ramlila Grounds. On the other hand a section of the party did not appreciate constituting the joint committee to draft a Lokpal bill viewing this had given recognition to team Anna Hazare.
The CWC meeting called to toughen its stand against the civil society led by Anna Hazare. And the next step could be to consolidate political parties against the so-called civil society members.
“There was a general view that it will not to be correct to concede demands, whenever a motley group of four to five persons start making demands that are contrary to the Constitution. Any demand that hurts the democratic polity can not be accepted,” AICC general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi told reporters after the CWC meeting lasted an hour and 38 minutes.
“Sarkar kamzori nahi dikhaye” members said.
This was the first meeting of the reconstituted CWC. As many as 16 members spoke on the issue of Lokpal following the opening remarks of the party chief Sonia Gandhi who presided meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by her side. The thrust of the meeting was on that “The politics of pressure is not correct nor was the attitude of my way or the high way” .
Responding to questions on what is the party’s view on bringing the Prime Minister under Lokpal’s ambit, Mr Dwivedi said that the Congress would support “whatever the government decides in consultation with various political parties.”
At the meeting devoted entirely to the Lokpal issue, Mrs Gandhi insisted that she as well as the Prime Minister had from time to time expressed their views on the issue of corruption and actions were also taken.
Union Ministers Pranab Mukherjee heading the Joint Committee to draft Lokpal bill briefed the CWC about the steps in this direction noting that the draft is ready which will go to Cabinet as also for consultation with other political parties and would later be introduced in Parliament. The meeting decided that further steps in this regard will be taken only as per the Constitutional provisions.