By IANS,
Mumbai : Team Anna Tuesday urged parliament to dump the government Lokpal bill, saying it will only fuel more corruption instead of combating it.
“We are appealing to parliament with folded hands to dump this useless Lokpal and accept our Jan Lokpal bill,” leading activist Arvind Kejriwal told a rally after Anna Hazare began a three-day hunger strike.
“The Lokpal which the government has brought is meant to protect corrupt people like A. Raja and Suresh Kalmadi, not to fight corruption,” Kejriwal thundered at the venue.
He alleged that the government was not willing to give autonomy to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) because it wanted to use the agency to keep a tab on political rivals.
He said the Lokpal bill now with parliament had excluded the lower bureaucracy, in violation of the pledge made by parliament in August when Hazare went on a 12-day hunger strike in Delhi.
“We want a strong and effective Lokpal. But the bill the government has introduced does not serve the purpose.
“It can only protect the corrupt… The government’s sincerity is questionable.
“We have not gathered here to oppose parliament but to demand a genuinely effective Lokpal. It is the government which has betrayed parliament.”