The political opposition to the move to keep the legislature out of the drafting of the Lokpal Bill is getting stronger. One or the other of the legislators from the Congress, BJP and the Left parties have raised concern over the composition of the drafting committee.

On the eve of the first meeting of the committee looking into the drafting of the Lok Pal Bill, Congress MP and deputy chief whip in the Lok Sabha Sandeep Diskhit has registered his protest against any ?arbitrary? decision on the Bill and attempts to keep the legislature out of its drafting. Dikshit wrote a letter to this effect to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee who is co-chair of the committee along with former law minister Shanti Bhushan. The letter has added to the clamour for Lokpal drafting committee, a week after Anna Hazare broke his fast in Delhi. Dikshit’s letter states that as an MP he too has a stake in law making and that ?10 people cannot decide the fate of such an important piece of legsilation?. He added that he too wanted to present his views before the committee and it should be considered. He also said making the framing of the law time bound was dangerous.

CPI(M) MP Sitaram Yechury too said, in an editorial in the party mouth piece People’s Democracy that the formation of the committee in fact was tantamount to a ?contempt of democracy.?

Mohan Singh of the Samajwadi Party said ?keeping legislators out of the business of framing laws was a dangerous precedent.? While Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi of the BJP has demanded that the government call for an all party meeting on the question of framing a new Lokpal Bill.

Across the political spectrum therefore, there appears to be a deep bred antipathy to the committee on the framing of the Lokpal Bill. According to top government sources in fact, whenever the Bill is brought to Parliament (probably in the monsson session this year) it would face deep scrutiny and resistance from almost all political parties. Mukhrejee meanwhile struck a note of caution and said that the mixed committee and co-chairing of it was ?a new experiment?.