New Delhi: Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley yesterday said the UPA government’s “unholy haste” in pushing for the appointment of a Lokpal will destroy its credibility.
“It would be a gross political impropriety and violation of the code of conduct if the UPA would rush through its appointment at this stage. Besides this, the procedure is legally suspect. Such unholy haste will destroy the credibility of the Lokpal even before it is formed,” Jaitley wrote on his blog.
He said the procedure should be stopped immediately, and added that the effort of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office to convene a meeting of the selection committee for filling up the vacancies in the search committee “should not be allowed to succeed”.
“While Manmohan Singh is now in a retirement mode, he must seriously introspect if this unholy haste in pushing the Lokpal on the eve of certain departure is implemented, he will only be remembered as a prime minister who subverted institutions at the behest of his party leadership,” Jaitley wrote.
“Even now if he tries to act with unholy haste, the entire democratic system of India is strong enough not to permit him to succeed. The prime minister has nothing to lose except some residual creditability,” he added.
“The Lokpal appointment controversy refuses to die. The UPA government has framed rules under the Lokpal Act. The rules prima facie run contrary to the Act. This is already a subject matter of a challenge before the Supreme Court,” Jaitley wrote on his blog.
IANS
