Gopal Rai, AAP Delhi convenor (Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)AAP will approach the country’s first Lokpal to lodge a complaint against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his role in the “Rafale deal” and “Sahara Birla diaries”, party Delhi convenor Gopal Rai said Monday.
Union government sources said that a committee — comprising the Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi — has cleared Justice (retd) Pinaki Chandra Ghose’s name as India’s first Lokpal.
Rai was a senior member of the Jan Lokpal movement — spearheaded by social activist Anna Hazare and CM Arvind Kejriwal — which gave birth to AAP. After forming the government in the capital in 2015, the AAP passed the Jan Lokpal Bill, but the Centre did not clear it.
Explained: How Lokpal will form, function
Stating that appointment of the Lokpal will mark the culmination of “eight years of unprecedented struggle by the people of India”, Rai said the AAP will file complaints of “corruption against PM Modi in the Rafale fighter jets multi-crore scam and Sahara-Birla diaries” with the ombudsman.
He added that Lokpal would not have become a reality had the Supreme Court not intervened. “It is no hidden fact that first the Congress-led UPA government, and then its successor, the BJP-led NDA government, resisted the appointment of Lokpal to prevent investigations into corruption by
those occupying high offices,” he said.
Rai added that there are many loopholes in the law at present, and that the entire appointment process of the Lokpal has been shrouded in secrecy.
“The AAP will bring in public domain some related facts in the coming days,” the party said in a statement.
