Read the 43 years struggle behind Lokpal Bill

New Delhi, Aug 28: The country struggled for four decades to successfully implement a Lokpal Bill only to fail every time.

The Parliament made eight unsuccessful attempts to pass a Lokpal Bill since 1968, all in different versions each time. The bill was first introduced in 1968 in the fourth Lok Sabha (LS) and then passed in 1969, all the efforts went in vain after the house was dismissed.

It was again revived in the year-1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998 and the 2001 but only to get jinxed.

From the year 1968-2011, the Lokpal Bill was introduced 7 times beginning with Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi with her being the first to hear about the Lokpal in May 1968.

The Lokayukta and the Lokpal Bill did not have MPs or the Prime Minister under its purview in 1968. The only Prime Minister's who agreed to have the PM under the ambit of Lokpal was VP Sigh, H D Deve Gowda and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

"The idea of an ombudsman first came up in parliament during a discussion on budget allocation for the law ministry in 1963.

The first administrative reforms committee in 1966 recommended the setting up of two independent authorities at the central and state level to look into complaints against public functionaries, including MPs," said a research by PRS Legislative.

List of years the Bill was introduced:

• In 1971, the bill was again introduced by Indira Gandhi only to fail again.
• In 1977, the Murarji Desai government presented the bill before LS but history repeated itself again this time.
• Rajiv Gandhi government in 1985 brough the bill before the Parliament following which he himself withdrew the bill.
• In 1989, VP Singh, the then Prime Minister tried to pass the bill but the attempts too failed.
• In 1996, Prime Minister, Deve Gowda also tried during the same but failure came knocking his doors too.
• Finally between 1996-2009, the BJP led government introduced the bill twice during their regime, only to fail again.

Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh in 2004 assured that the UPA government was looking forward to implement a Lokpal but the promises were gone with the wind.

But after, Anna Hazare stepped in, determined to carry forward his crusade against anti-corruption to redeem the country from corruption completely, there was no looking back.

Determined to pull corruption out of its root level, the Gandhian went on a indefinite hunger strike at Ramlila Maidan on Aug 16 so that a successful Jan Lokpal be implemented only to find success.

The latest Lokpal Bill was introduced in the LS on Aug 4, making it the ninth version before the Parliament.

OneIndia News