Varanasi, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Monday said he wasn't running for the prime minister's post and his job was to stay connected with people. "Rahul Gandhi's obsession is not to be PM. Rahul Gandhi's obsession is to work for the people," the Congress general secretary told reporters on the last day of campaigning for the first of the seven-phased Uttar Pradesh polls due to begin Wednesday. Without naming him, the Gandhi scion hit out at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran L.K. Advani saying some senior politicians were obsessed with prime ministership. He, however, said Advani was committing the "crime" of promising something to people that he won't be able to deliver. "He (Advani) is not listening to the people. He is trying to tell people that he will do something that he won't. But I don't do that," Gandhi said. He accused the BJP leader of scuttling the Lokpal bill in parliament. "Giving constitutional status to the Lokpal was India's idea," Gandhi said, alleging that the BJP opposed it thinking that this was Congress's ...
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New Delhi, After Uttarakhand, Team Anna would launch a multi-city campaign in Uttar Pradesh from Thursday creating awareness about a strong Lokpal Bill but stay away from directly targeting any one political party. Arvind Kejriwal would not be part of the campaign as he is accompanying Anna Hazare for treatment to Bangalore. Team Anna would largely consist of Prashant Bhushan, Manish Sisodia, Kiran Bedi and Kumar Vishwas. Sisodia said, "We are going to constituencies as per the election schedule. I will be in UP throughout, while others could join the campaign at different places." On Thursday, Team Anna will campaign at Mahadev Talab Maidan in Fatehpur of Barabanki and in Ramlila Maidan in Gonda. Subsequent meetings have been planned in Faizabad, Basti, Varanasi and Allahabad. Ahead of the assembly polls, Team Anna had written a series of letters to leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi and BJP president Nitin Gadkari raising questions about the Lokpal Bill. Letter was also sent to UP chief minister Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. While in the letter to the PM, he was asked to show some courage to withdraw the ...
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Jaipur/Ahmedabad, Welcoming the Supreme Court's verdict in a 2G case petition filed by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, former senior police officer and civil society activist Kiran Bedi has said the apex court order in the telecom scam case has vindicated what they have been fighting for in Jan Lokpal movement. "Supreme Court has exactly said what we have asking and fighting for, what people have been asking, everything to be time bound. But in Jan Lokpal Bill, there was supposed to be no sanction for prosecution. If there is evidence, the CBI starts its investigation and nobody interferes in its investigation. This is what the Jan Lokpal Bill was. Secondly in Jan Lokpal Bill, it was time bound trial and through number of special courts as needed, so within the maximum period of less than two years, a case is decided," Bedi told media in Jaipur. Noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan said the verdict would give a boost to the struggle against corruption. "They have firstly again highlighted how big a menace corruption is in society and we need to tackle it on a war footage. Secondly, even when a private complainant makes a complaint and seeks sanction of the government ...
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Jaipur, Popular author and columnist Chetan Bhagat supports the idea of a Lokpal but he does not aspire to be Anna Hazare. In a chat at the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival here today Mr Bhagat, author of five best-selling novels, said "I can't be Anna, I feel hungry ", adding, they could just put a Bollywood actress and that would be more fascinating. Over questions related to his critics, including Anna supporters, who target him over different issues, the author-cum-speaker said, "Can I change how people think. That’s why I write now and have also become a motivational speaker". In the context of his latest best-seller novel "Revolution 2020 : Love, Corruption, Ambition", Bhagat said, “ My audience wants entertainment. So I had to add a love story. But to make it even hotter, it had to be an infidelity angle. Otherwise, they would say -Yeh kya Anna Hazare type book likh di.” "However, I was lucky Anna Hazare happened when my book came out. Corruption was on the top in people's mind". The author did feel offended over Anna's comment for hiring him as a blogger and said they could not afford him. Over criticism apparently on standard of language of his books ...
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New Delhi, Still nursing the sting of ally Trinamool Congress opposing the Lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha citing issues of federal autonomy, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government wants to take the states into confidence on Sonia Gandhi's dream project - the National Food Security Bill, 2011. The bill was tabled in the Lok Sabha during the winter session of parliament last year and will now go to the standing committee concerned. If the panel's report is submitted in the budget session, likely to start mid-March, the bill could be taken up for consideration and passage in the same session. Keeping that in mind and the reservations of states like Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh against the bill, the government is planning a meet with state food ministers in mid-February to bring them on board. "We have requested Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to address the meet," a food ministry official said. Sources said though the food ministry consulted the states before it tabled the bill in parliament, issues related to procurement of grain to meet the requirements of the bill would be taken up at the meet. More importantly, the meet will focus on ...
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New Delhi, Top leaders and lawmakers of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would meet President Pratibha Devisingh Patil on Thursday to lodge their protest over the Rajya Sabha episode of Dec 29 when an alleged pre-planned chaos by the ruling party stalled passage of the Lokpal Bill in the upper house of Parliament. The BJP group will include LK Advani and they are likely to protest the handling of the day's proceedings by Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari. In what is seen as the ruling Congress party's orchestrated and pre-planned strategy of creating chaos in the House thereby stalling passage of the Lokpal Bill, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned sine die at midnight on Dec 29 leaving the anti-corruption ombudsman law in limbo. The government action evoked strong reactions from Opposition which called the Congress cowards and murderer of democracy and said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should resign. Opposition alleged that the entire episode in the Rajya Sabha was scripted. The extended session of Parliament ended thus without a Lokpal Bill being passed. The BJP is also now observing a protest week from Jan 3 to 10 over the episode ...
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Kolkata, Denying that she had any deal with the Congress on the issue of Lokayukta in the Lokpal bill, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said the Lokayukta should remain a perogative of the states. ''Some news channels are saying that there is a deal with the Congress on the Lokayukta issue in the Lokpal bill. But I want to say that there was no such deal. I don't believe in deals. I believe in transparent politics,'' she told reporters at the state secretariat. ''We have clearly stated that Lokpal is the matter of the Centre and Lokayukta is a matter of the state. The states should decide on the issue of Lokayukta. When our MPs protested in Lok Sabha, they were told that an amendment would be made so that states don't face any problem,'' she said. The amendment said those states which did not want a Lokayukta could opt out. But if any state wanted a Lokayukta, then it had to follow the model given in the central bill, she said. ''Why will we follow that model? I can make a better model. I had spoken in favour of all the states and the federal structure of the country,'' Ms Banerjee said. ''I think that Lokpal should be made in a good way and if ...
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New Delhi, The Minister of State in the Prime Minister''s Office, V. Narayanasamy, today blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the failure of the passage of the anti-graft bill. "The opposition created uproar in the Parliament and disrupted the proceedings and they are now blaming the government and the Congress Party. This move is not at all right as it shows BJP''s double standards," said Narayanasamy. "As a Minister, after so many lawmakers spoke in the Parliament, I have a right to reply to their questions. Why did they stop me? Why did they not allow me to speak? This was all pre-planned by the BJP," he added. Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) lawmaker Rajniti Prasad had expressed disappointment with the government''s version of the Lokpal and tore the anti-graft bill in the House last night. Prasad snatched the Bill from the hands of V. Narayanasamy while he was making his speech on the Lokpal Bill in the House. The Lokpal Bill failed to get Parliament''s nod when Rajya Sabha was on Thursday night adjourned sine die abruptly amidst high drama and the Opposition accusing the government of running away from a vote because it was in a ...
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New Delhi, A day after the Lokpal Bill fiasco in Rajya Sabha that was blamed largely on the Congress, the ruling party and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) traded charges against each other on Friday for putting the anti-corruption ombudsman law in indefinite suspension. Congress Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal told a press conference: "It's a pain to hear, none other than the Leader of Opposition blamed that debate was choreographed by the government and that it was the murder of democracy." "I level this charge on them," said Bansal. Bansal said the Opposition did not want the Bill to be passed in the first place. He said if the amendments, numbering 187, were accepted then Parliament would have been rendered into a laughing stock. His party colleague and Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid said he was disappointed (indicating even the stance of ally Trinamool Congress at a much later stage demanding amendment on Lokayukta clause) but in a move to not ruffle Trinamool Congress further said the point Mamata Banerjee's party raised is a "legitimate concern." BJP president Nitin Gadkari went ballistic. He said the United Progressive ...
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New Delhi, The Congress did not have majority support in the Rajya Sabha to pass the Lokpal bill but it hoped for a miracle. But as night fell Thursday, its troubleshooters realised the grim truth that the bill would not get past a belligerent opposition. Through the day, as an animated and at times stormy debate raged in the packed upper house, there was intense speculation that the Congress might somehow -- just somehow -- cobble the numbers. By noon, intense backroom negotiations were on between Congress strategists and members of political parties who the government believed could be won over. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal did not want another embarrassment after the Tuesday fiasco in the Lok Sabha over moves to give the Lokpal constitutional status -- a Rahul Gandhi dream. During the day Thursday, Mukherjee and Bansal met separately and together Satish Misra, the parliamentary face of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and Mukul Roy of the Trinamool Congress, an ally which has more than once tripped the Congress-led government in recent times. IANS spotted Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad enter ...
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New Delhi, The government Thursday decided not to press for passage of Lokpal bill in Rajya Sabha after it realised that it had not been able to muster requisite numbers and wanting to avert a defeat ahead of the forthcoming assembly polls, Congress sources said. The sources said efforts of party leaders to convince its ally Trinamool Congress to back the bill, passed by the Lok Sabha Tuesday, had not yielded results and Bahujan Samajwadi Party Samajwadi Party also decided against staging a walk-out and helping the government. The sources said a defeat on the bill in the Rajya Sabha would not have done any good to the Congress-led government's image ahead of crucial polls to five states. Meanwhile, a Samajwadi Party leader told IANS that the party would have supported the bill if the government had dropped the clause concerning Lokayukta. "Otherwise we would have voted against the bill," he said. Congress sources said that the government did not want to face division when it was not sure of its numbers. They said the party had suffered an embarrassment in the Lok Sabha by failing to get constitutional status to Lokpal and did not want to face another defeat in the ...
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New Delhi, A day after the government faced embarrassment in Lok Sabha following the defeat of Constitution (116th Amendment) Bill on the Lokpal, the Congress-led UPA Government faced another debacle when the Rajya Sabha was today adjourned sine die amidst chaos. The government was not able to put up its stand on the anti-graft legislation, as a united opposition cornered the government on issues concerning several amendments. Due to the constant threat of veteran social activist Anna Hazare, the brief Winter Session of Parliament was extended for three days to discuss the contentious issue of Lokpal. However, the extended session was slated to conclude on December 29. The House was earlier adjourned for 15 minutes following uproar after Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) lawmaker Rajniti Prasad expressing disappointment with the government''''''''s version of the Lokpal tore the anti-graft bill in the House. Prasad snatched the Bill from the hands of Minister of State in the Prime Minister''''''''s Office (PMO) V. Narayanswami while debating the Lokpal Bill in the House. Reiterating the government''''''''s stand to bring in an effective Lokpal Bill, Parliamentary Affairs ...
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New Delhi, Calling the Centre''s Lokpal Bill a ''weak and ineffective'' legislation, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday urged the Government to amend contentious issues in the anti-graft bill. "We want an effective Ombudsman. We feel that the Bill in the present form as passed by the Lok Sabha has many shortcomings. We only hope and wish the government will show a large heart by making the CBI autonomous, not violating the rights of the state-federal principle and the most important, a real effective instrument also to the Lokpal," Prasad told the media here. Meanwhile, BJP national vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi lashed out at the government for its perceived hesitancy and failure in tackling the menace of corruption. "They first propose the issues of foreign direct investment and Ombudsman Bill and then dispose them by bringing up reservations. So, it is clear that the sole motive of the government is to ensure that a strong and effective Lokpal Bill is never formulated and passed," Naqvi said. "They want to create a weak Lokpal, which will not address the concerns of the people. The BJP feels that an Ombudsman must have ...
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New Delhi, MoS for Parliamentary Affairs V Narayanasamy today moved the historic Lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha providing for setting up a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayukta in the states to investigate corruption cases in the country. Piloting the historic Bill, cleared by the Lok Sabha on December 27, the Minister noted that the Bill had taken 40 years to be tabled in this form, recalling that the Administrative Reforms Committee had recommended setting up a Lokpal in 1966. Since then eight Bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha of which seven had lapsed, he said. In January 2011, the Group of Ministers under the chairmanship of Pranab Mukherjee was constituted with the mandate to go into the issue. The mandate of the Bill covered among others electoral reforms, constitution of courts and open procurement ...
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New Delhi, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday lambasted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the failure of the constitutional amendment over the Lokpal Bill in the Lok Sabha, saying the incident exposed the main opposition party’s duplicity. “The BJP had actually committed for constitutional status for the Lokpal Bill in the standing committee and yesterday they voted against it and denied constitutional status,” Gandhi, the chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition said. “Yesterday we have seen the real face of the BJP...we wanted to give a solid Lokpal Bill but they refused," she said. The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday is expected to take up the Lokpal Bill after it was passed by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, though the fate of the long-awaited anti-graft law appeared largely uncertain over burgeoning dissent among lawmakers. Some reports said that the bill might be taken up on Thursday. Questions were raised on how an increasingly isolated government would ensure that its draft of the Lokpal Bill, which has been widely criticised as weak, sails smoothly in the upper house, after MPs in the lower house appeared far from a ...
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New Delhi,The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assailed the Congress party-led Central Government for deviating from core issue of enacting a strong Lokpal Bill. Accusing the Congress party for politicising the issue, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said: "The UPA government forces a legislation which creates a weak Lokpal. The autonomy of CBI is not maintained. Sushmaji''s amendments are rejected. States'' rights under the federal structure are being encroached upon." "And if we oppose that this Bill is sought to be forced in perennial unconstitutional manner, you sought to give it a Constitutional status. The bill fails, the fault is entirely yours and a clear message has gone to the country that the Congress-led UPA government is not interested in having an effective Lokpal, so much needed in the fight against corruption, but only was keen to score a political point," Prasad added. Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar doubted government''s intentions of making a strong anti-graft bill and added that Congress could not gather its own allies in favour of the constitutional status. "I think, the intentions of the BJP and the opposition parties are clear. The ...
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Mumbai, Bowing to appeals from doctors, Anna Hazare, hit by viral fever, said he was ending his three-day fast a day earlier Wednesday but vowed to keep fighting for a "strong Lokpal". A day after the Lok Sabha passed the government's Lokpal bill trashed by Team Anna, Hazare declared from the stage at the MMRDA ground that "we will end our fast" Wednesday. He also pledged to tour all five states which will see elections early next year to campaign against those who did not vote for his "Jan Lokpal bill". "This is the only way forward after seeing what happened in parliament yesterday," he said, referring to the passage of the Lokpal bill Tuesday night in the Lok Sabha. Looking fatigued and speaking slowly, the 74-year-old activist said he had originally decided to fast for three days, until Thursday. But an illness had forced him to skip food for the past four days. His announcement came shortly after doctors pressed him to end his fast without delay, saying his temperature and rising blood pressure could lead to kidney failure. Ashwin Mehta, who examined Hazare at noon, said Hazare's blood pressure in lying condition was 120/90 and in standing condition was ...
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New Delhi, The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday is expected to take up the Lokpal Bill after it was passed by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, though the fate of the long-awaited anti-graft law appeared largely uncertain over burgeoning dissent among lawmakers. Questions were raised on how an increasingly isolated government would ensure that its draft of the Lokpal Bill, which has been widely criticised as weak, sails smoothly in the upper house, after MPs in the lower house appeared far from a consensus over the thorny legislation. MPs from the four Left parties, Biju Janata Dal (BJD), All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had walked out from voting in the Lok Sabha over the Bill on Tuesday. It was the absence of this large chunk of the lawmakers that was seen as one of the reasons behind the failure of the constitutional amendment that would grant the ombudsman proposed under the Lokpal Bill. The Rajya Sabha campaign of the Lokpal Bill is being seen as an acid test for the coalition government -- constituted by the Congress and its allies NCP, DMK, Trinamool Congress, LJP and RLD -- that has ...
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New Delhi, Asserting that Lokpal Bill has a lot of flaws, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said it seems that the government has introduced the Bill in anger. She said that Minister of State in the PMO V Narayanasamy initiated the Lokpal debate in a combative mode. “Narayanasamy has placed three Bills for debate. It appears the government is placing this Bill in a fit of rage. Ministers normally introduce Bills very calmly and ask for support .But the Minister seems ready for battle”, she said. "Sad to say that the Bill is inadequate. The Bill has lot of flaws, lot of inconsistencies. We expected government to bring a bill that will remove corruption. The Bill has ruined our expectations. It violates the Constitution," she added. She further said: "The Bill can''t go against the basic structures of the Constitution.” “This Bill is talking of Lokpal and Lokayukta both. State employees will be looked after by the Lokyukta. The Bill can''t force states to follow the diktat of the Centre," she added. Emphasising that the Bill is meant to provide an enabling framework, Swaraj said government now says we make it mandatory because ...
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New Delhi, Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the Lokpal Bill and said that the key opposition party of the country is against the passing of a strong bill. The Lok Sabha reconvened in an extended Winter Session of the Parliament on Tuesday to debate and vote on the anti-corruption Lokpal Bill, the government’s draft of which has been widely criticised as weak. Sibal attacked BJP and said that they demand for a strong Lokpal to control the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government but they would not form a strong Lokayukta in the states to hold themselves accountable to the ombudsman body. "They want Lokpal to cover UPA at the centre but they donot have a strong Lokayukta to hold them (BJP) accountable in states. If one look at the condition of the states you will find that there is no big step that has been taken to fight corruption problems," Sibal said. He said that BJP has ignored corruption troubles in the states where they are in power. "BJP is ignoring corruption in their own states," Sibal said. Commenting on objections raised by BJP over the issue of reservation in the ...
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