AAP, rebels indulge in slugfest over Janlokpal

The war of words between the Aam Aadmi Party and former member Prashant Bhushan and his father Shanti Bhushan continued on Saturday over the draft of the anti-graft bill Janlokpal.

Mr Bhushan has accused chief minister Arvind Kejriwal of playing the “biggest fraud” on people by diluting the provisions of the Janlokpal draft of the 2011 anti-corruption movement led by activist Anna Hazare and his father had demanded the chief minister’s resignation. Bhushan Junior had also described the draft Janlokpal Bill as “maha jokepal.”

Offended by the criticism of the father-son duo, the AAP on Saturday claimed that they were opposing the Janlokpal Bill at the behest of the BJP and asserted that the proposed legislation was similar to the one tabled by Mr Kejriwal during his previous 49-day tenure.

Rejecting criticism by the Bhushans, the AAP said that the father-son duo should now join the BJP. Launching the counter-attack, the AAP fielded its spokesperson Raghav Chadha, who had once hosted a Google Hangout on Janlokpal Bill with Mr Shanti Bhushan — one of the key leaders during the Anna movement.

“This is the same bill which was introduced by the AAP government (during its 49-day rule). Prashantji was fine when the same bill was introduced during the AAP’s last government,” Mr Chadha said.

“Why did he not raise any issue at the time Now that the BJP is in power, he does not want the Lokpal to investigate the Centre. He should join the BJP and also make public relations between (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley and the Bhushans. He should first ask his party (the BJP) to appoint a Lokpal at the Centre,” he said, adding that it was Bhushan Junior who had pushed for registering an anti-corruption case with the Delhi ACB against the then Union petroleum minister Veerappa Moily and Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani.

In another press conference on Saturday, Mr Prashant Bhushan read out certain provisions of the Janlokpal draft bill and claimed that ministers and officials of the Centre were put under the ambit of the proposed legislation “deliberately” to provoke a confrontation with the Centre.

He said Mr Kejriwal does not like to be questioned like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he had chosen not to make the contents of the bill public. “No activist or movement in India’s history has played such a big fraud with people. This will only ensure that the Central government does not approve and the bill never gets passed. Kejriwal never had the intention to form a strong Lokpal body,” the former AAP leader said.

The father-son duo criticised the alleged provision in the draft bill which stipulates one-year imprisonment for false complaints, which they said will only deter complainants. “So the falsity is to be decided by a sarkari lokpal ” they asked. “We can now understand why this draft was kept under the wraps,” Mr Bhushan said in a mocking tone.

The Janlokpal bill will be tabled in the Assembly on Monday, the AAP said.

AAP Delhi unit secretary Saurabh Bharadwaj said by opposing an attempt to bring the Centre under Delhi’s Lokpal ambit, Mr Bhushan was “batting for the BJP.”

AAP leader Sanjay Singh also accused Mr Bhushan of “misleading” people over the Janlokpal Bill. Another party leader Ashutosh said, “First he (Mr Bhushan) tried to defeat the AAP at the behest of Arun Jaitley and now he has objections on Lokpal.”