Lokpal bill must cater to national interest: Ramvilas Paswan

National interest should precede all considerations in the formulation of Lokpal Bill and institutions of the prime minister and judiciary should not be put in any shackle in discharging their duties, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) national president Ram Vilas Paswan said today.

"It not a simple point whether the prime minister and judiciary be brought under the ambit of the Lokpal Bill or not... We should understand that the prime minister and judiciary are constitutional institutions which have the authority to take decisions on issues of national interest," he told reporters here.

LJP was, however, yet to take a stand on the issue, he said.

Paswan, a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee going into the Lokpal bill, deplored attempts by a section of the civil society to undermine the sanctity and supremacy of the Parliament in enacting of laws.

"The authority of the Parliament in matters of legislation cannot be challenged," he said.

At the same time, Paswan conceded that the ongoing agitation for Jan Lokpal by social activist Anna Hazare was a mass movement and the UPA government must engage the civil society in a dialogue on the Lokpal Bill.

The government should explain points of agreements and disagreements with the civil society on the contours of the proposed bill, he said.

Paswan criticised NDA for trying to take advantage of the civil society movement and cautioned Anna Hazare and his followers to guard against the movement from being hijacked by the alliance for political and elecoral benefits.

"The NDA has made a somersault by demanding inclusion of the prime minister in the ambit of the Lokpal Bill though it had made no effort to enact the bill during its stint in power at the centre from 1998 to 2004 and was not in favour of the inclusion of the prime minister in it.

"The main opposition seems to have jumped on to Hazare's bandwagon by selectively demanding the PM's inclusion in Lokpal bill even as it was yet to formulate its broad views on the contours of the proposed bill," the LJP supremo said.

Paswan, a product of the JP movement, regretted comparisons made between it and the Anna Hazare-led . Though the issues were similar there was vast difference between the two agitations.

During the JP movement there were no electronic media, mobile phones, SMS, social networking sites to disseminate information during the JP movement, yet it had affected the psyche of the common man enough to vote out Congress in 1977.

The Anna Hazare movement are yet to have a meaningful impact despite the vastly improved means of communication, he added.