The centre faced the two twin threats from Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdeo. It has been able to neutralize Baba Ramdeo by using force. Baba Ramdeo has made a tactical withdrawal but you can expect that he will attack the congress when they least expect. He is presently like a wounded tiger who has been made to withdraw to its den.
Having tasted victory once the centre is now planning the same treatment to Anna. The centre is unwilling to allow certain posts to go under the purview of the Lok Pal. I don’t why it should object.
We had a number of cases where the chief ministers of a state have gone to jail against corruption charges. What is to prevent a Prime Minister to commit the same misdemeanours. We have had people like Lalu Yadav, Shibu Soren, C K Zaffer Shariff, Sukhram as ministers and they have been convicted. Suppose they had become Prime Ministers – what then?
The procedure for getting sanctions for prosecution is long and usually the permission is not forthcoming as even the superiors who are to give sanctions are involved. Who will give the sanction to prosecute of the PM? The President. But the President has been appointed by the PM and his/her cabinet. Will he/she give the sanction? No.
As for calling a All Party meeting to discuss the issue. I don’t think the present lot of parliamentarians will agree to give powers to the Lok Pal. They would rather want themselves too be included in the august list of NO-NO Lok Pal as 60 % of our MPs have criminal charges against them. After all the PM is also one of them, a MP first and then a PM.
We require the Lok Pal to expedite the process of sanction for prosecution for these high and mighty. Once the sanction is given, then the Judiciary can take over. Our judiciary with a few exceptions has been doing good work. The Lok Pal should not be both the sanctioning and prosecuting authority.
For corruption charges against the judiciary we should have a permanent bench of three retired Supreme Court judges who could look into the charges and sanction prosecution. The actual prosecution being carried out in normal courts.
Let us hope better sense prevails on the congress and they agree to bring the what they think as august offices under the purview of the Lok Pal Bill.
Have you noticed that the agreement with Switzerland allows for sharing of fresh tax evasion information after 2011? In one stroke our UPA government has swept all old cases under the carpet. Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdeo cannot do anything to get back that money as now the Swiss government will not agree.
Reminds one of the famous Bofors case where one arm of the government asked for records and another arm asked the Swedish government not to provide it. The Swedish government finally threw out the case.
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