JOIN USUnion Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee countered the allegation of the Opposition that the government has drafted the Lokpal Bill in haste and asserted that the anti-corruption legislation has been drafted after long spell of debates and discussions.
“There is a long history of the last six months. We entered into a dialogue with civil society... It is not under duress but we wanted to have a strong anti-corruption legislation in the form of a Lokpal, an ombudsman which will examine corruption in high places,” said Mukherjee adding that “we have waited enough for the Ombudsman….let us pass the Bill … and show the people of this country that we want to fight this menace of corruption collectively”.
Mukherjee was speaking in Lok Sabha on Tuesday while participating in the debate on Lokpal Bill.
The senior minister of the UPA government at the same time attacked the Opposition and said the position of some of the political parties had been contradictory and inconsistence on the issue of Lokpal.
“Sometimes they say that Parliament is the only place to legislate and sometime they join the protest,” Mukherjee said in an apparent attack on the political parties, who shared the dias with veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare during his day-long fast for a strong Lokpal Bill on December 11 at Jantar Mantar in the national capital.