Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said that there is a need for a strong Lokpal Bill to deal with the menace of corruption. He, however, made it clear that the bill should be compatible with the Constitution of India and the will of the Parliament should prevail, whatever the nature of the bill.
"This debate takes place at a time when a popular movement against corruption has provided us with a historic challenge. The message of these extra-Parliamentary protests is loud and clear; India is no longer willing to accept corruption as a way of life. India expects the Parliament to take effective steps so that corruption and graft in society can be eliminated," he said.
Jaitley said that barring emergencies and matters relating to national security, the prime minister should be brought under the purview of the Lokpal bill. "The National Democratic Alliance government under its Lokpal bill had brought the prime minister's office under the purview of the bill much before the present agitation by social activist Anna Hazare.
"There is a crisis of credibility. The credibility of the government is at an all-time low. People are losing faith in the government. It is therefore time for us to seriously introspect. We must restore the credibility of politics and governance. We must eliminate discretions and wage a war on corruption. Time has come to penalise the corrupt so that there is a deterrent against it," said Jaitley.
When delicensing was effected and controls were eliminated, one expected that with the role of the government coming down, corruption would be eliminated. That, however, has not taken place he said.
New areas of corruption in mining, telecom and other areas emerged which led to the 2G scam, Commonwealth Games scam, land acquisition, oil exploration scam. "The expansion of economic activity expanded the areas and quantum of corruption. Government discretion gave way for arbitrariness and corruption," he said.
He even came down heavily on the media for indulging in corruption. He said one source of corruption was paid news. Investigative agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation are now used for political purposes. There are innumerable cases where investigations are used for political purposes, the Jaitley said.
Sixty four years after independence, we are still far from a mature and transparent method of political funding. Even though donations to political parties were incentivized by tax breaks, a large part of the politics of the world's largest democracy is funded through black money.
"Today, Anna Hazareji's fast has entered the 9th day. His health has steadily deteriorated. We are all concerned. It's high time the government put its act together and arrives at a mutually acceptable position that inspires confidence of the public. The enormity of corruption, in the United Progressive Alliance government is directly proportionate to the public anger that resulted in the enormity of protests that ensued," he said.
He ridiculed the government for bring out ministerial draft instead of addressing the problem. The government deceived the civil society during their initial discussions. The ministers' draft lacked vision. "If this draft had been reasonable, the problem of this enormity would not have occurred," said the former minister of law and justice in the Vajpayee government.
