JOIN USHazare lashes out at Kapil Sibal
The Gandhian, who surprised the government on Sunday by demanding videotaping of the meetings of the panel, said “if Sibal feels that nothing will happen due to the Lokpal Bill then he should resign from the joint committee as soon as possible.” Sibal is a member of the panel.
Hazare’s criticism of Sibal came before he left for his Ralegaon Siddhi village in Maharashtra even as his colleagues in the campaign for a strong Lok Pal Bill, Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal, also slammed Sibal.
Hazare, who last week succeeded in making the government agree to his demand for setting up a joint panel with 10 members from the government and civil society, shot back: “Why is he (Sibal) wasting his and our time? He should do other things for the country. Why does he want to be in the committee? If you believe that nothing will happen, you should not be there in the joint committee.”
Sibal, however, denied having made any such statement and that he was with Hazare for drafting a strong anti-corruption law.
The committee, chaired by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, is to hold its first meeting on April 16 and is expected to come out with a draft bill by June 30.
“I ask this question. If a poor child does not have any means for education, then how will Lokpal Bill help? If a poor man needs help for medical services then, he will call up a politician. How will Lokpal Bill help,” Sibal had told a public meeting here.
Clarifying his remarks, he said what he had meant was that “the scope of the Bill is different. The problems of the common man are different.”
Meanwhile, a decision to videotape the proceedings of the panel, as sought by Hazare, has to taken by the drafting panel itself, Union Minister Salman Khurshid said on Monday.