Team Anna attacks Par panel: Govt wants Anna to hold back stir

Ralegan Siddhi/New Delhi, Dec 9: Accusing the Parliamentary panel on Lokpal of fooling people, Team Anna questioned the credibility of its report, claiming only 12 of the 30 MPs supported its proposals, even as government asked the activists to hold back any agitation till the bill is passed.

Anna Hazare, who has threatened to go on a day-long agitation at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Sunday, alleged that the proposals will not help in fighting graft and repeated his charge that Rahul Gandhi was behind the watered down recommendations. Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal wondered about the credibility of a report supported by "Lalu Prasad, Amar Singh and rest from Mayawati's BSP". "The issues remain the same. This means the Parliamentary Standing Committee has fooled the public. Their report does not help in fighting corruption," Hazare told reporters in Ralegan Siddhi.

Kejriwal said in New Delhi, "Standing Committee had 30 members. Two never attended. Sixteen dissented. So this report is supported by balance 12. Seven are from Congress, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Amar Singh and rest from Mayawati's BSP. So much for credibility of this report."

However, panel chairman Abishek Singhvi had earlier said that the a dissent note by an MP does not mean that he or she is against the entire report and they may be expressing their reservations against one or more points.

Appealing to Hazare not to go ahead with his fast on Sunday in protest against exclusion of his key demands like bringing lower bureaucracy under Lokpal, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal said, "They should all wait for a decision in Parliament. People can give their views and Parliament takes the decision." In reply to a question on Hazare's agitation and Team Anna's attack on the Standing Committee's report on Lokpal Bill, Bansal said, "it amuses and bemuses me that discussions will be held in Jantar Mantar."

Singhvi and Law Minister Salman Khurshid sought to allay apprehensions that making it a consitutional body would delay its passage and maintained that the process can be completed in a single day. MORE