Rahul brigade wants Parliament debate on Lokpal

Renu Mittal reports on Rahul Gandhi's speech and its aftermath.

Finally breaking his silence on the Anna Hazare agitation, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi appeared totally disapproving of the methods being used by 'Team Anna' to raise the issue of corruption.

Such methods, he said, could set a dangerous precedent for a democracy emphasising that Parliament cannot be bypassed and that it alone can make laws.

Speaking after a long time in Parliament, Rahul Gandhi used Zero Hour to make his intervention through a written, structured speech even as he was opposed by Bharatiya Janata Party members who wanted to know how he was allowed to speak. Speaker Meira Kumar, however, intervened to say that she had granted him permission to do so.

Interestingly, his sister Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra was present in the Speaker's gallery to watch her brother speak on the issue of corruption and Hazare's agitation. Priyanka has just returned from New York where their mother Sonia Gandhi is recuperating after surgery.

Rahul Gandhi sought to set the stage for widening the debate on the anti-corruption law, and the Lokpal. He suggested the Lokpal should be a Constitutional body like the Election Commission, responsible to Parliament, and not merely a statutory body as suggested by the panel of ministers who had drafted the government's Lokpal bill.

Corruption, he said, has to be fought at various levels, through a slew of measures and just one bill alone cannot be a magic device to eradicate corruption.

Young Congress MPs, many of who are ministers, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and pointed out that there should be no divergence between Rahul Gandhi's speech, the government's stand and the proposed debate in Parliament to discuss various Lokpal bills.

After the BJP did not allow the House to function on Friday, these young MPs assembled under the Gandhi statue in the Parliament complex and shouted slogans against the BJP. They sat on dharna, demanding that Parliament be allowed to function and that MPs be given a chance to discuss the Lokpal bill and put forward their views before the nation.

The strong retaliation by Congress ministers and MPs, who included Sachin Pilot, Jitin Prasad, R P N Singh, Milind Deora, Meenakshi Natarajan, Jagdambika Pal, Sandeep Dikshit and others, was unusual for a party that normally errs on the side of caution and does not believe in either hyperbole or theatrics.

All these MPs are known to be part of the Rahul Gandhi brigade and sit along with him when he is in Parliament.

But there was also anger amongst ministers known to be close to Prime Minister Singh with Rahul Gandhi's speech. Unwilling to offer open criticism, they said while the prime minister had acted positively by reaching out to Hazare, Rahul Gandhi had undone Dr Singh's good work. They felt that Rahul Gandhi's speech severely criticised Hazare without naming him.

For some days now there has been expectation that Rahul Gandhi would speak on the issue. When he did, it was a speech that sought to address a number of issues without in any way going overboard in praising the 74-year-old social activist who has been fasting for the last 11 days at the Ramlila Maidan.

At one point, Rahul Gandhi said the aim was to enact a law against corruption, but asked what if at some point in the future there was an attempt to bring in a law that attacks the plurality of Indian society and Indian democracy.