No differences in Lok Pal Bill committee, says Hazare

Social activist Anna Hazare today said there were no differences in the movement against corruption and over the composition of a joint committee formed to draft a tough Lok Pal Bill.

He also brushed aside yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s allegation of nepotism by including the father-son duo of Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan in forming the committee and not having Kiran Bedi, a former IPS officer and now an activist, or someone else.

The two were selected as both were lawyers who knew the Bill and had been with the drafting process from the beginning, the 73-year-old activist said.

“We needed experienced people because the law should be stringent and law experts have been kept in the committee, and that was the whole reason I did not want to be in it,” Hazare told reporters here.

“I am there in it only to put pressure on the government,” he told reporters.

He also dismissed allegations that the committee was just a two-month affair and it was not so significant as to raise such narrow issues. He said the selection committee that would finally appoint a Lok Pal would be a different matter and there the choice would be scrutinised more carefully.

In a press conference addressed along with activists Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi, Hazare also justified his hunger strike last week against corruption and for the introduction of the Lok Pal Bill, saying if it was considered ‘blackmail’, he was willing to do it all over again if the Bill was not introduced by August 15 in Parliament.

Hazare said he initially intended to do a fast unto death over this issue in Maharashtra but Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Swami Agnivesh persuaded him to do it in the national capital.

Hazare said the proceedings of the joint committee in drafting the Bill would be conducted in full transparency when meetings start from April 12. “We will also ask for broadcast of the meetings, so that the public remained an active witness and can contribute in consultations we propose to hold all over the country.”

Hazare said he had full faith in Parliament but he also added the voters were yet to realise the power of their votes, as they were easily swayed by money and liquor and often have no choice but to choose bad candidates.

The voters should get an option for rejecting all candidates. If a certain per cent of voters refuse to select any candidate in their area, then the election in that area should be annulled. If parties lose '6 crore in every constituency, then they would learn to nominate good candidates rather than money bags or crooks, he said.