Aruna's bill demanding but allows govt breathing space

Virtually pushed to the margins ever since Team Anna launched its high decibel campaign on the Jan Lokpal Bill, other civil society players are trying to make their voice heard now. It could not have come at a better time. With Team Anna stuck to its extreme position and government having nothing significant to offer, a proposal striking a balance between both was overdue. It has come from the Aruna Roy-led National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI).

Aruna Roy, a member of the National Advisory Council and a prominent leader of the Right to Information movement, had earlier maintained that Anna Hazare’s Jan Lokpal Bill was impractical and complicated and it was a “threat to democracy”.

“Jan Lokpal is a bill impossible to implement. Also, it derails the checks and balances between the judiciary, executive and other organs of the democratic structure,” she had said, insisting that the Lokpal legislation should be thoroughly deliberated by activists, lawmakers and all other stakeholders.

The bill submitted by NCPRI is much closer to that of Team Anna’s bill than the government’s though it in agreement with the latter that the higher judiciary and lower bureaucracy should be out of Lokpal’s purview. It appears more practical and better thought-out than the Jan Lokpal Bill. Moreover, it does not seek to bypass the parliamentary procedure and fixes no hard deadline for the passage of the bill.

According to a report in The Times of India NCPRI’s bill fine-tunes many of the clauses proposed by Team Anna. Both NCPRI and Team Anna agree that the same law should also establish Lokayukta in the states. The government wants separate legislations for both.

In a departure from Team Anna’s position on having all levels of bureaucracy under Lokpal, NCPRI holds that the Central Vigilance Commission should be strengthened to deal with lower bureaucracy while Lokpal should be concerned with higher bureaucracy only. The government’s bill empowers Lokpal to investigate cases involving Grade A officers only.

It agrees with Team Anna that the Prime Minister should not be exempted from Lokpal’s ambit but proposes additional safeguards. It says there should be no investigation against the Prime Minister without the Supreme Court’s clearance and that the Cabinet’s collective responsibility should not expose him to vicarious liability. The government’s bill keeps him out of the purview of the ombudsman; any investigation is possible only after he demits office.

On the issue of making MPs accountable for their conduct in Parliament, NCPRI’ proposal says it is desirable. However, it says a constitutional amendment is required to remove the immunity enjoyed by MPs. It wants an undertaking from the government that it would make such an amendment within a year, says the Times of India report.

On the composition of Lokpal, NCPRI wants the dominance of judges to go. It says there’s no justification in restricting the chairperson’s office to judges. The Jan Lokpal makes a similar demand.

According to The Times of India report, “…since the nine-member selection committee envisaged by the official bill is overrun by those who are either part of the government or appointed by it, NCPRI went further than Team Anna in making the process quicker and more inclusive. First, it reduced the selection committee to three members: Prime Minister, leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha and a SC judge. NCPRI also suggested that the 10-member search committee, which will short-list candidates, should consist equally of retired state functionaries and civil society representatives.”

NCPRI rejects the government’s proposal that allegations against Lokpal members should not be probed by the SC without a reference by the President. NCPRI proposes the removal of the reference condition.