March 6<\/span>\u00a0detailing the steps taken to ensure the appointment of the ombudsman.<\/p>\nKharge has alleged that the conduct of the Modi government only seeks to diminish the spirit and objective of appointment of Lokpal. \u201cMay I say that such myopic actions belie the spirit of nation building, more so while constituting an institution like the Lokpal. A more apt and statesman like conduct is expected from the prime minister of the country,\u201d he said in his letter.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me also remind you (PM) that on December 18, 2014, a bill to amend the lokpal act, 2013 on similar lines was brought for substituting \u2018leader of opposition\u2019 with the \u2018leader of the single largest party\u2019. I understand that even the select committee of Parliament had put its seal of approval on the amending bill, yet the government has failed to introduce and pass it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Congress has alleged that the lokpal bill continues to \u201clanguish in the cold storage for want of appropriate intent, commitment and objectivity\u201d on the part of the government.<\/p>\n
The UPA government passed the lokpal act in 2013 and brought it into force on January 16, 2014 but the BJP government had chosen to not appoint a lokpal for nearly four years, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo anyone familiar with the BJP government\u2019s record in not establishing and preserving the office of the lokayukta in Gujarat, this would not come as a surprise,\u201d Kharge said.<\/p>\n
He was referring to the long tussle that the state government, then led by Modi, had with the governor over the appointment of anti-corruption watchdog.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn these circumstances, I must respectfully decline the invite as special invitee to uphold the inviolability of The Lokpal Act, 2013, as the current proceedings have reduced a sacred procedure to a political pretence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After a delay of almost 50 years, Parliament in 2013 \u2013 during the tenure of the Dr Manmohan Singh-led UPA government \u2013 approved a law to create the watchdog to look into charges of corruption against senior public functionaries. However, after the Congress was reduced to just 44 seats in the Lok Sabha and failed to get one of its MPs nominated as the Leader of the Opposition as its strength did not constitute 10 per cent of the Lok Sabha\u2019s total strength \u2013 the basic requirement for nominating a leader of opposition. In the absence of a Leader of Opposition, the Modi government did not constitute a Lokpal Selection Committee as the Lokpal Act requires the presence of LoP, Lok Sabha in the selection panel.<\/p>\n
\u2014With Agency inputs, India Legal Bureau<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mallikarjun Kharge\u2019s decision to skip Lokpal Selection Committee meet comes at a time when the Supreme Court has asked Modi govt to expedite Lokpal appointment While the Supreme Court has pulled up the BJP-led central government for delaying the process of selecting a Lokpal and asked for an affidavit on the efforts made by it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[26766,42,6183,15,20232],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/d2r2ijn7njrktv.cloudfront.net\/IL\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Mallikarjun-Kharge.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44807"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}