New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat Saturday said the office of the prime minister should be covered by the Lokpal with adequate safeguards but the judiciary should be out of its ambit.
‘The prime minister should be brought under the purview of the Lokpal with adequate safeguards,’ Karat told reporters here.
‘The office of the prime minister along with all public servants was brought under the purview of Lokpal by the V.P. Singh government in 1989 and also by the parliamentary standing committee headed by Pranab Mukherjee in 2001. Then why it is being changed today?’ Karat asked.
‘It is surprising that the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) doesn’t want to bring PM under Lokpal,’ he added.
According to Karat, the official draft of the Lokpal ‘is not the government’s draft, but only a draft by five ministers’. ‘By avoiding the political parties, you can’t pass any bill in parliament.’
While suggesting that ‘the judiciary too needs to be brought under scrutiny’, he said he did not favour the higher judiciary within the Lokpal’s purview.
To make the judiciary more accountable, the CPI-M wants a national judicial commission to be set up at the earliest, he said.
Karat said the ‘battle against corruption can be achieved only through a comprehensive reform of our political, legal, administrative and judicial systems and not through one-off or piece-meal measures’.
