JOIN USEx-members lambast bill, are detained
Ousted AAP leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan were detained with their supporters on Monday for staging a protest outside Delhi Assembly against the Janlokpal Bill 2015.
They claimed that the bill in its present form is the “diluted version of the 2014 Janlokpal Bill” and termed it as “Jokepal”.
“Four years ago we (Yadav, Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal) had come together with the one purpose which was to end corruption. We are still striving for it but the AAP government’s bill to be tabled today is the diluted version of the 2014 bill,” said Yadav.
Bhushan said that the Delhi Janlokpal Bill 2015 is different from 2014 bill. “The present bill has provisions which aim at bringing Central government official under its purview. Such provisions to investigate Central government employees were not there in the 2014 bill,” he said.
“The Centre will never give its nod to such a legislation (2015 Janlokpal Bill) and Kejriwal will put the blame on the Centre,” he added.
Scores of protesters gathered outside the Delhi Assembly and shouted slogans against the 2015 bill – “People who betray the trust of others are scared of open debate”.
Earlier, Bhushan had asked Kejriwal for an open debate on Janlokpal Bill 2015.
According to police, some 150 protestors were detained for demonstrating outside the Vidhan Sabha. Yadav said that the Speaker of Delhi Assembly had called up the force to stifle the voice of dissent.
“People can differentiate right from wrong. And if the general public can break the
illusion of bigwigs like Narendra Modi and Manmohan Singh, they can shatter the dreams of others as well,” he added.
Yadav also took a swipe at Kejriwal hugging Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav at the oath taking ceremony of the Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar. “These people (the AAP workers) were claiming that nothing happens by extending political courtesy in the form of a hug or handshake. The events taking place today can be seen as a fallout of that,” he added.