By IANS,
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday said it hoped that the joint committee formed to draft the Lokpal Bbill would address concerns of the people on the issue of corruption.
“The government has been forced to respond to people’s reaction to a year of scandals,” BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said here Saturday.
She was reacting to the successful campaign by veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare, who ended his 97 hours of hunger-strike earlier in the day.
Hazare broke his fast, which had sparked an unprecedented people’s movement across the country, after the government agreed to form a 10-member panel that will include civil society members to draft a stringent Lokpal Bill to combat corruption in high places.
“It (government’s response) was people’s reaction to an year of scandals and its failure to deal with corruption charges. Anna Hazare has been an icon for youths who rallied behind him,” Sitharaman told IANS.
She said Hazare’s fast provided peaceful diversion to public anger against corruption.
Sitharaman said she hoped that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and former law minister Shanti Bhushan, the chairman and joint chairman of the joint drafting committee, would be able to meet the expectations of the people on the Lokpal Bill.
“We hope Shanti Bhushan and Pranab Mukherjee will come up with an effective bill to address the concerns of people on matters of corruption,” she said.
Referring to series of scams in the past year, the BJP spokesperson said the Congress-led government had failed to live up to the expectations of people.
“People have understood the lies.. the kind of speeches and outpouring across the country showed the extent to which people are disappointed…people’s patience was tested to the very end last year,” Sitharaman said.
Tarun Vijay, party parliamentarian, said Hazare’s success was the victory for the collective conscience of the nation.
“The fight for clean and accountable governance does not end with it. On the contrary, it has just begun and may well become the second war of independence. This time it will be independence from corruption, bad governance and anti-people polity thriving on the basis of family fiefdoms,” he said.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Nilotpal Basu said the government had been jolted by Hazare.
“The public image of the government has taken a battering. At this point, the focus is entirely on the question of corruption.”