Congress says Lokpal Bill not dead, will be back soon

New Delhi, Dec 31: Smarting under Opposition attack over the issue of Lokpal Bill, Congress today insisted that the measure is not dead and will be back soon.

"The Lokpal Bill is certainly not dead. It is not even in ICU or Emergency. It is merely under rest and recovery (R and R) and it will be back soon," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.

A political war has broken out between government and Opposition over Rajya Sabha's failure to pass Lokpal Bill, with both sides accusing each of carrying out "well choreographed" chaos to scuttle it.

The assertion by the Rajya Sabha MP, who headed the Parliamentary Panel that went into the Lokpal Bill, comes a day after after Rahul Gandhi promised not to rest till a strong Lokpal Bill with constitutional status is brought.

Addressing a rally in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh yesterday, Gandhi had hit out at the BJP for failure to give constitutional status to Lokpal. He insisted that this was not only his dream but that of the youth of the country and the Congress will not rest till it is achieved.

"We will not stop till we achieve constitutional status for the Lokpal," Gandhi had said.

The Congress general secretary had said that he felt "the strongest Lokpal will be one with constitutional status, but the opposition defeated it in the Lok Sabha".

Attacking the BJP, Gandhi had said, "those who used to talk about India Shining (in 2004) defeated a strong Lokpal Bill" that represented the aspirations of the country's youth.

"The BJP has openly stated that they had defeated the motion that would have given constitutional status to Lokpal because it was Rahul Gandhi's dream. It is not my dream alone, it is the dream of the youth of the country. We will not stop till we achieve constitutional status for the Lokpal," he had said.

PTI