By IANS,
New Delhi : Some provisions of the Jan Lokpal bill had inherent flaws and parliament would find it difficult to pass it in its present form, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani said Friday in a candid assessment of the document.
He, however, added that they would lend their support to any strong, anti-corruption legislation.
“I know what are the flaws in the provisions of the Jan Lokpal bill due to which it will not get passed. And this, I tried to explain to them (Team Anna) yesterday,” Advani told a group of students from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) who called on him.
“I also told (Finance Minister) Pranab (Mukherjee) and the government that look, these people are emotionally attached to the title ‘Jan Lokpal Bill’ so assure them whatever be the final shape of the Lokpal bill after amendments, do continue to call it the Jan Lokpal bill,” he said at his residence.
“They (Mukherjee) said we will think about it,” said the top BJP leader, adding that his party would support any legislation that was aimed at ending corruption.
“I am 100 percent in support of any law or legislation that aims at ending corruption,” he said.
Taking the example of Gujarat, Advani also said that there would be no corruption if the senior leadership was clean and effective.
“Practically speaking, Gujarat does not have any Lokpal bill. But there is no corruption there. Because if the senior leadership is upright and clean, there will be no corruption,” he said.
Team Anna met senior BJP leaders, including Advani and Arun Jaitley in the capital late Thursday. Arvind Kejriwal of Team Anna said that the BJP “broadly agreed” to their version of the anti-graft bill.