The Jan Lokpal wants to swallow CBI?
FORMER Director General of BSF, Prakash Singh, in an article says,
Government's sins of omission are coming home to roost. The Jan Lokpal wants to swallow the CBI. Must we destroy an institution built over the last sixty years to create another? The parliamentary committee has also tripped in suggesting the approval of Lokpal before the submission of charge sheet/closure report.
The parliament would do well to remember certain basic principles:
++ the Lokpal should be saddled with only as much as it can properly cope with;
++ concentrating too much power in the hands of a single individual/organization would be fraught with complications and that a decentralised structure would have better chances of success in a country of India's size and population;
++ the existing institutions which have served reasonably well should not be tampered with, though minor structural changes could be made in the light of experience gained;
++ that any change which impinges on the basic character of the Constitution must not be entertained;
++ that we should have an integrated anti-corruption mechanism in the centre and the states; and
++ that the sanctity of the investigative process must not be sullied by any external agency.
If there is clarity and agreement on these fundamentals, it should not be difficult to arrive at a consensus in finalising the Lokpal Bill.