Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge had boycotted the last meeting on March 1, giving the same argument.
The Congress on Tuesday boycotted a meeting of the Lokpal selection committee again with Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, saying he had been invited to the meeting as a “special invitee” with the singular intention of excluding the opinion of the Opposition in the selection process.
Kharge had boycotted the last meeting on March 1, giving the same argument. On Tuesday, he wrote a second letter to the Prime Minister saying “it was deeply disappointing that not only did the earlier letter go unacknowledged, but also the serious concerns that were raised in that letter continue to go unaddressed as seen by the issuing of the latest office memorandum from DoPT”.
He declined the offer to attend the meeting, alleging that the BJP government had not accorded priority to appointment of Lokpal, and its “double standards” stood exposed. “Inviting the leader of the single largest opposition party as a ‘special invitee’ is done with the singular intention of excluding the opinion of the Opposition from the selection process of the Lokpal. The government is well aware that there is no provision in the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act for a special invitee to be a member of the selection committee.”
“An invitation as a special invitee without rights of participation, recording of opinion and voting in the procedure is only to mislead the nation and the people, rather than sincerely seeking the participation and opinion of the Opposition. Therefore to participate in this charade while your government runs roughshod over the intent and spirit of the Lokpal Act would amount to dereliction of my constitutional duty,” he said.
He said the government had wasted four years in the fight against corruption by not amending the Lokpal Act to include the leader of the single largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha as a member of the selection committee under Section 4(10) of the Act. “The government’s double standards… stand exposed by the fact that similar amendment was made to the Delhi Police Special Establishment Act in 2014 itself, where the leader of the single largest Opposition party was made a member of the selection committee governing the appointment of director of the CBI,” he noted. “It is apparent that the appointment of Lokpal has not been accorded the same degree of importance.”
Kharge said the “repeated conduct of the government in this matter both in the Supreme Court and now during this process of appointment defeats the intent to honour the letter and spirit of the Lokpal Act.” He told the Prime Minister that the amendment Bills to include the leader of single largest Opposition party had been approved by the select committee. “Yet till date your government has never bothered to list the same for debate or voting,” he said.