BJP to force amendments on Lokpal if suggestions not included

New Delhi, Dec 20: BJP today (Dec 20) decided to seek amendments in the Lokpal Bill if its suggestions and concerns on the legislation are not incorporated.

This decision was taken at a meeting of BJP parliamentary party chaired by LK Advani and attended by other senior party leaders, where the Lokpal Bill was discussed.

"The Lokpal Bill was discussed at the meeting. We learnt that government is working on a new Bill on the basis of suggestions by different political parties. Hopefully, they are going to decide today," BJP leader S S Ahluwalia told reporters after the meeting.

"When the Bill is discussed by Cabinet and approved and the new bill comes up, we will see its fine print. We will see if our concerns expressed in the dissent note before Standing Committee and suggestions put forth in the all-party meeting are incorporated or not. Only then will we decide," he said.

"We will see if they have incorporated all our points or not. If we don't find our suggestions incorporated in the Bill, then we will be forced to move amendments in the Bill," Ahluwalia said.

The BJP leader said Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had yesterday called on party leaders L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Yashwant Sinha on financial reform bills and sought the party's support.

"After discussion, they have agreed to accept the Standing Committee report, after cabinet earlier rejected it on the Pension Bill.

"On the Companies Bill introduced in 2009, the government has accepted a lot of recommendations of the corporate world and formed the new Companies Bill. We have sought that this Bill be sent to the Standing Committee, which gives its recommendations before the Budget Session," said the BJP leader.

PTI