Hegde threatens to quit Lokpal committee

New Delhi/Bangalore, Apr 21 (PTI) Justice Santosh
Hegde Thursday threatened to quit the joint drafting committee
on Lokpal(Ombudsman) Bill as the alleged smear campaign
against civil society activists snowballed and a government
forensic lab found no tampering of a CD involving lawyer
Shanti Bhushan.
Hegde, a former Supreme Court judge and now south
Indian state of Karnataka Lokayukta, said he was thinking of
resigning from the ten member committee because he was upset
over the "continuous and day-to-day vilification" campaign
against activists.
He was especially "hurt" by Congress leader Digvijay
Singh's attack on him that he was not acting against
corruption in Karnataka. Singh, however, reacted saying he did
not challenge anybody and if the Lokayukta was so "good and
effective", then why there was corruption in Karnataka.
"I am thinking of resigning. I will take a decision
after talking to my colleagues, including Anna Hazare," he
said.
Hegde's threat came on a day when civil society
activists Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi ruled out resignation
of Shanti Bhushan and his son Prashant Bhushan from the joint
committee in the wake of a slew of controversies surrounding
them.
"There is no question of anybody resigning from the
joint committee. No one will resign. We are at a historic
juncture where we are going to have a strong anti-corruption
law. We are not the ones who run away from battle zones," they
told a press conference in Delhi.
The demand for their resignation mounted after Delhi
Police leaked out information citing CFSL report that the CD
allegedly involving Shanti Bhushan, the co-chairman of the
committee, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh, was not
tampered with as claimed by the Bhushans.
Prashant Bhushan had claimed on Sunday on the basis of
a report from a private forensic lab that the CD was doctored
and fabricated by Amar Singh.
Though the Bhushans remained quiet on the allegations
against them, Kejriwal and Bedi said the civil society members
were together and the "entire malicious" campaign launched by
some "corrupt elements in and out of government" was aimed at
derailing the drafting of a strong Lokpal Bill.
"Everything stinks," Hegde said referring to "the
manner in which the vilification campaign first went against
(Anna) Hazare, then against Bhushans (Shanti and son
Prasant)."
"This is absolutely false. This is contrary to
facts. I am not not a politician. I cannot fight this type
of battle," he said adding Digvijay Singh's remarks were
"hurting" at a time when his party leader Sonia Gandhi had
made it clear she does not support any smear campaign.
Singh today said that it has been said that the
Lokayukta institution in Karnataka is better than any other
similar body in India and wondered "if he (Hegde) can't stop
corruption in Karnataka, then what is his effectiveness."
After the CFSL report was made public, Amar Singh made
a direct demand for the resignation of Bhushans while
the Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari and Digvijay Singh
made subtle suggestions that they should quit.
One of the NGO activists, Omkar Razdan, who had gone
on fast with Anna Hazare in Jantar Mantar, issued a statement
that the Hazare movement will be killed by the Bhushans who,
he said, should quit the panel.
Bedi claimed that they had asked the government to
nominate the Leader of Opposition in the joint panel to make
it more "inclusive" but they did not listen to them and
decided against their suggestion.
"We are small people. We have nothing else but self
respect and honesty. We have a work to do and that is drafting
a strong Lokpal(Ombudsman) Bill," Kejriwal said.
He said, the "present atmosphere" will not have any
bearing on the joint committee proceedings as committee
meetings "will continue" and the drafting of the bill "will
continue".
Kejriwal said the Bhushans had not offered to quit the
ten-member drafting panel, which has five each members from
the government and the civil society. However, they made an
appeal to the father-son duo not to quit the panel as their
"expertise" was needed in drafting the Lokpal Bill.
"These are difficult times. Some forces are targetting
us. There is no substance in these allegations," he said
defending the Bhushans, both members of the joint drafting
committee, getting embroiled in controversies over contents of
a controversial CD and allotment of farmhouse plots in Noida.
"If Shanti Bhushan resigns, Prashant Bhushan resigns,
Hegde resigns, Hazare resigns...who will benefit from this? We
have a historic opportunity. But let us not squander it,"
Kejriwal said.
Kejriwal claimed the plot allotment to the senior
Bhushan and his son Jayant were in order and there was neither
discretionary quota not some favours were done to them and
rejected the government forensic laboratory report.
Hegde, who is due to retire in August as
Lokayukta(Ombudsman), said, "The anti-corruption crusade has
unnerved some sections. Nobody expected Hazare to get the
response he did," he said.
"There is no doubt there is an attempt to derail the
anti-corruption crusade," Hegde, whose name was initially
suggested along with that of former Supreme Court Chief
Justice J S Verma to be the panel head by Hazare, said.
Responding to allegations that he was only taking
action against others and not against south Indian state of
Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, who is facing
allegations of corruption, he said, "There is no one who has
fought Yeddyurappa, the way I have. My hands are tied, yet I
have taken action, issued notices, sought explanation."
Hegde said the civil society activists of opponents of
any political party and all they were doing was only to help
in drafting of a strong Lokpal Bill.
"We are not asking for right to participate in the
voting of the Bill in Parliament. We are not subverting the
process," he said.