Govt wants to weaken the Constitution: CPI (M)

New Delhi: CPI (M) leader Basudeb Acharia on Tuesday advocated that Lokpal should have an independent investigative agency.

He said that the government wants to weaken the constitution with this bill.

"We attended 3 all-party meetings, we gave many suggestions. If Lokpal does not have its own investigative agency, what will Lokpal do? We will just end up with another piece of dysfunctional body. The government should have open mind, they should ensure the bill passes after the amendments we suggested," he said.

"There is no Lokpal in the centre. There are Lokayukts in 7 states. Kapil Sibal said that the Lokayuktas in the states do not cover the bureaucracy. But at least they have a law," he added.

The senior CPI (M) leader also said that the amount of anger that is there among the people of the nation, there will be no state which will not dare to bring in a Lokayukta.

"We demanded a strong, credible, effective Lokpal. We should enact legislation accordingly. Can we make that with this bill before us? No," he said.

"Today, for the first time ever, we are discussing on the Lokpal Bill. Unfortunately, we failed to do it in all these years," he added.

More specifically, he said, "If there is an agreement with the head of the state of another country, that agreement should come under Lokpal."

On the rising corruption cases in the country, he said, "What is the genesis of corruption in our country? If you compare pre-reform and post-reform period, you only remember Bofors during pre-reform. But post-reform, the meaning of corruption changed. We saw one scam after another."

"The way black money is used during elections, parliamentary democracy would soon be contracted democracy. We need a strong Lokpal and electoral reforms straightaway. State-funding of elections will curb corruption to a great extent," he said.

He added, "Loot of our natural resources are taking place. We have seen how the government has used the CBI for political gains. We have seen how CBI was used against Mulayam Singh to get his support during nuclear deal confidence vote during UPA 1. I am not in favour of giving complete autonomy to CBI because CBI should be accountable to somebody? Either accountable to Parliament or Supreme Court. Lokpal should also be accountable."

"The reason for increase in corruption is the indifferent attitude of this particular government. They have not taken any measures. There is a nexus between corporate houses and bureaucracy. There is no mention of the corporates in this bill," he added.

Toeing the party line, DMK MP TKS Elangovan on Tuesday said that Centre should not curb state's power through the Lokpal Bill.

"We are opposed to any efforts to trespassing to the states. Centre should not curb states powers," he said.

"Even Ganga is polluted. The same thing can happen to Lokpal. DMK has reservations," he added.

The DMK leader also said that there should be a provision to appeal.