Team Anna must await passage of Lok Pal Bill: govt

Ahead of Anna Hazare's dharna here on Sunday, the government today said Team Anna should await the passage of the Lok Pal Bill before going ahead with any agitation on the issue.

"They should all wait for a decision in Parliament. People can give their views and Parliament takes the decision," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal told reporters.

In reply to a question on Hazare's proposed day-long agitation at Jantar Mantar on Sunday and Team Anna's attack on the Standing Committee's report on Lok Pal Bill, Bansal said "it amuses and bemuses me that discussions will be held in Jantar Mantar."

He said issues, if any, needed to be resolved in an atmosphere of peace and amity and not by vitiating it. "It is the responsibility of Parliament to pass laws. That right flows from the Constitution and in that respect Parliament is supreme," he said.

He also wanted Team Anna to understand that law-making is a dynamic process.

The talk in government circles is that the Bill could come up for discussion at a meeting of the Union Cabinet likely on December 14 and it would be brought for consideration on December 19.

Reacting to Team Anna's criticism of the report, Standing Committee Chairman Abhishek Singhvi said the panel could not put a rubber stamp on any of the proposals and has to take decisions based on its perceptions. "If we have to be rubber stamps, then Parliamentary Standing Committees should be abolished," he said.