Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge has, for the seventh time, rejected the government’s invitation to him to attend Friday’s meeting of the Lokpal selection panel, arguing that there was no provision for a special invitee to attend such a meet.

Mr. Kharge has been skipping the meet since February last year.

Writes to PM

In his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, the Congress leader said the government made no attempt to amend the Lokpal Act to officially include the leader of the single largest Opposition party as a member of the selection panel.

“Since there is no provision under Section 4 of the Lokpal Act, 2013, for a special invitee to be a part of the Selection Committee or attend these meetings, I am once again forced to respectfully decline this invitation,” he said.

He also said the Ministers in the government had repeatedly used his refusal as an “excuse for not appointing a Lokpal over the last five years”.

As the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Kharge was earlier invited to the selection panel meetings six times and he refused to attend.

Note of caution

“However, the fact remains that whatever tardy progress the government has made, has only been under pressure from the Supreme Court,” Mr. Kharge observed.

Alleging that the process was being “vitiated”, he added: “I would like to caution the government that anyone selected through this one-sided process may decline to accept this position.”