Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge again refused to attend a meeting of the selection committee for Lokpal at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence on Thursday and wrote to the Prime Minister, objecting to him being invited as a “special invitee and not a member.”
The meeting, however, took place and the process of forming a search committee to appoint a Lokpal was discussed.
Mr. Kharge, however, made it clear that he would not attend the meetings of the Selection Committee unless the leader of the single largest Opposition party is accorded the status of a full-fledged member.
“The recent actions of the government including the dilution of the Right to Information Act and the Whistleblower’s Act show that instead of strengthening laws to fight corruption and empowering the common man, they betray its [true] intentions,” he said in a letter to the Prime Minister.
“Since no amendments in the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 have been carried out, 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. Under these circumstances, I must once again respectfully inform that I would not be able to attend the meeting of the Selection Committee until the leader of the single largest Opposition party is conferred the status of a full-fledged member as envisioned in the Lokpal Act, 2013,” he added.
This is the third time Mr. Kharge has skipped the meeting.
The committee comprises the PM, the CJI, Lok Sabha Speaker, the leader of the largest Opposition party and an eminent jurist.