Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal has ticked off key members of the Lokpal committee Anna Hazare and Shanti Bhushan for raising issues ‘extraneous” to the drafting of the bill. He also raised serious objections to a letter written by Bhushan to the finance minister.
The Centre has found a perfect pretext to wriggle its way out of the clutches of civil society activists. Hazare and his associates boycotted a meeting of the Lokpal drafting committee on Monday.
Sibal said it was wrong of the Hazare team to write threatening letters and take up a confrontational attitude and what should be an internal discussion of the panel should not be made public. He said this was not the way a bill was or can be drafted.
The minister said the bill and the Ramdev episode should be kept in separate watertight compartments.
Sibal clearly wants to get the message across to Anna Hazare and his team the Ramdev episode cannot be used as a stick to beat the government.
Jethmalani calls govt thug
Supreme Court lawyer and BJP Rajya Sabha member Ram Jethmalani called the UPA “thugs”, who were protecting thieves and robbers involved in stealing poor people’s money. “Thugs always call others thugs. During Emergency the Congress tried to protect its throne and this time they are protecting the thieves and robbers who have stolen the money of poor people,” Jethmalani said.
He also lampooned UPA ministers for rushing to airport to touch the Baba’s feet. “Ministers go to airport to touch his feet and when he does not toe their line they do this to him,” he said.
