BJP backs keeping PM under Lokpal's purview
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The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday backed the demand of the civil society for bringing Prime Minister under the purview of the anti-graft ombudsman or Lokpal.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said Atal Bihari Vajpayee, when he was Prime Minister, made it clear that he wanted the post to be under the purview of Lokpal. “In Atalji's time, he had said he wants PM to be (under the Lokpal),” Ms Swaraj told reporters.
Speaking on the same lines, party spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said the BJP will give its view to the government when it is approached. “Vajpayeeji himself said that Prime Minister should be under purview of Lokpal. But when the government talks to us in a well thought manner, we will talk to them,” he said.
The meeting between ministers and civil society members in the Lokpal bill drafting committee in New Delhi on Monday ended on a bitter note on this issue after the government said that the Prime Minister, judiciary, MPs as well as officers below the rank of joint secretaries should be kept out of the purview of the proposed Lokpal.
The party also supported yoga guru Baba Ramdev's planned "satyagraha" (agitation) from June 4 for bringing back money stashed abroad and in support of a strong Lokpal bill. “Ramdev is doing a great national service by demanding that all the money which is the profit of crime and corruption lying in foreign banks abroad of Indians be brought back. The BJP whole heartedly supports the entire endeavour of Baba Ramdev,” Ravishankar Prasad said.
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