By IANS,
New Delhi : The Communist Party of India-Marxist Saturday spelt out its stand on the Lokpal issue for the first time when its leader Basudeb Acharia told the Lok Sabha that his party wanted “a strong and effective” Lokpal Bill that also brought corporate corruption under its purview.
Acharia, the first speaker from among the Left parties during the discussion on Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s statement on the Lokpal bill, said his party also favoured electoral reforms that brought in state-funding of elections and banned corporate donations to parties.
“We want a strong and effective Lokpal institution,” he said. “The government Lokpal bill is useless.”
With regard to accountability of the judiciary, Acharia said his party favoured a commission to probe corruption there.
“Corruption is a nexus among corporates, politicians and bureaucracy,” he said. “Last CommonWealth Games, we saw how corruption takes place. There is a need to break the nexus.”
The Left also called for a review of the existing taxation system, noting that thousands of crores of rupees of government revenue were lost due to tax evasion and money kept illegally in tax havens abroad.
He also wanted the prime minister to be brought under the purview of Lokpal, asking why it could not be done when the prime minister came under the scope of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
However, he was against MPs being brought under Lokpal for what they did or say inside parliament.