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With passage of the long-pending and contentious Lok Pal Bill in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, a political slugfest broke out over taking credit for this anti-corruption legislation.
The Congress-led UPA, fielding its vice-president, Rahul Gandhi, claimed the Bill was part of a “larger framework of the UPA to fight corruption”, starting with the Right to Information law. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Sushma Swaraj it was “Anna Hazare to whom all the credit should go.”
Pleased with the enactment, Hazare broke a nine-day fast to ensure this, at his village of Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra’s Ahmadnagar district. The Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, after a five-hour debate.
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It might be recalled that even as the Congress zealously strove to take credit, a Lok Pal Bill was not out on Parliament’s agenda for the ongoing session at the outset. It was evidently, the poll debacle in four states and the advent of the Aam Aadmi Party on the anti-graft and more accountability plank in Delhi that had prompted the UPA to prioritise it and bring it on the agenda. This coincided with Hazare going on a fast to demand it be cleared by Parliament in this session.
Despite the din when the Speaker went ahead and took up the Bill, the Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, who’s hardly spoken in Parliament till now, addressed the House. "The Bill alone is not enough to fight corruption. What we need is a comprehensive anti-corruption code. The UPA government has prepared an anti-corruption framework...Eight new central laws have been brought...We should complete the unfinished work of fighting corruption...Six anti-corruption Bills are pending. If necessary, can we not extend this session of Parliament?” he said.
Swaraj, head of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, attacked the Congress for trying to take the credit. “The people of this country and the old man (Anna Hazare) who has undertaken a fast several times deserve the credit,” she stated.
The UPA, on the backfoot with a series of scams and corruption allegations, has been desperate to make amends before the electorate by passing this law, bringing bureaucrats, ministers, MPs and even the Prime Minister under its purview.
Rahul Gandhi in the interim had also reached out to a fasting Hazare, thanking him for supporting the government Bill.
The BJP initially wanted to stall the Congress from taking any credit in getting any major legislation passed. It subsequently admitted that the “changed political climate and the eroding faith of the public in politicians” required it to cooperate in getting the Bill passed before 2014. Therefore Swaraj going on record to state that Hazare deserved all the credit.
Meanwhile, Arvind Kejriwal, who has parted ways with Anna and since then formed the Aam Aadmi Party, has denounced the bill as a “joke pal”.
The AAP says once in power, it would bring back the original version of its Jan Lok Pal draft, a stronger law. The political class, been scared by the public anger over corruption, was quick to dismiss AAP and Kejriwal.
