'Lok Pal Bill not defeated yet'

Chidambaram blames BJP for scuttling the Bill with help from other parties.

The war of word on the Lok Pal Bill is escalating by the day. A day after the main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, blamed the UPA-II for staging the show in the Rajya Sabha to ensure the Bill is not put to vote, the government shot back.

Home Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday said the BJP had devised an “ingenious” method to scuttle the Bill by pushing 187 amendments along with some other parties, making it impossible to “analyse, classify and distill” those in such a short duration. He also expressed surprise at ally Trinamool Congress’ for publicly expressing displeasure.

He, however, said the government was keen to pass the Bill in the next session and had to refine and redefine it. The government has “hard work ahead”, he said. He clarified the government had two options either to change the character of the Lok Pal Bill and pass it or save it. "Fortunately, the Lok Pal Bill is safe. It is not defeated. We will take it up in the Budget Session," he said.

Stepping up attack against the BJP he said, "It is a specious argument to say the BJP supported the Lok Pal Bill. It did not. Because it had a certain number of votes, it defeated the Constitution Amendment Bill (in Lok Sabha). If it had more numbers or could muster more support, it would have defeated the Lok Pal Bill also," he said.

“The BJP refused to discuss the Bill on the 28th. On the 29th, 187 amendments were introduced in the Rajya Sabha. The last of those were presented at 6 pm. Can anyone make sense of 187 amendments, analyse and classify them in such a short span of time? I have never come across a situation where a Bill is passed in one House with a few amendments and gets stuck in another House because the same parties now want 187amendments. I have never heard of this before (187 amendments in Rajya Sabha). That should have happened in the first House," he said.

"The moment it introduced that many amendments and did the last of it at 6 pm, it was clear their intention wasn't to pass the Lok Pal Bill but to scuttle it...since it couldn't do so in Lok Sabha," he said.

He insisted there was no fixing or manipulation of the proceedings by the government, and neither did it let down either the country or Parliament.

About TMC's behaviour, he said, "We were taken by surprise (by TMC). We thought we had convinced them after redrafting a provision. On December 29, TMC insisted it was not satisfied with the proviso and that we must delete Part 3. That would have gone against the 'sense of the House' statement, which was that there must be a chapter on Lokayukta," he said.

"But we are confident in the time between now and the budget session, we will be able to refine or redraft the provision and carry the TMC with us. We cannot accept 187 amendments, it will be unrecognisable Bill," he said.

He defended the deferring of the Lok Pal and Lokayukta Bill, 2011, in the Rajya Sabha on December 29, contending it was the "only prudent course" left before the government.