Govt. is not serious, wants to frustrate Lok Pal select committee's recommendations: Jaitley
Ahmedabad, Nov. 25 (ANI)
Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Sunday charged the UPA Government with being non-serious about the select committee's recommendations on the Lokpal Bill, and added that the latter wants to frustrate the move to have it approved or passed at every turn.
Talking to ANI, Jaitley said he and Sushma Swaraj, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha were only concerned about institutional reform that the committee has recommended, and not about the fact that who has been appointed as the next CBI director and who was not.
"Our suggestion was not person centric, it was entirely in relation to institutional reform. And, if somebody deliberately tries to misunderstand what we have said, he has been more than unfair to us," said Jaitley.
"Obviously, the government is not serious and the government wants to frustrate this recommendation. Therefore, the government has made the appointment of the new CBI director unilaterally just few hours before the committee's report was tabled," he added.
Jaitley argued that since it was a unanimous recommendation, the government ought to have waited for a few days, implemented the recommendations, and then made the appointment of the new CBI director in accordance with the recommendations.
The senior BJP leader asserted that the experiences about functioning of the CBI have been extremely disappointing, and therefore, various changes and reforms have been suggested indicating that the CBI now must be freed from the government's clutches.
"Inherently, neutrality and fairness is required for the functioning of the office, and therefore, the CBI director must be appointed by a collegium, comprising of the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India, as recommended by the committee. This itself would be a very significant institutional reform," he said.
The BJP is opposing the government decision to appoint Ranjit Sinha as the new CBI director. Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley have written a letter to the Prime Minister seeking a stay on the appointment.
However, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has rejected the their demand, and Sinha, a 79-batch IPS officer of Bihar cadre is likely take charge as new CBI director on November 30.