One NGO cannot claim to be repository of all knowledge: Soni

New Delhi, Jun 9 (PTI) In a clear message to activists
drafting the Lokpal Bill, Indian government Thursday asserted
that Parliament is the final authority in making laws and a
handful of people cannot claim to be the sole repository of
all knowledge.
"I do not believe that four or five persons or a
single NGO can claim to be better informed and be the sole
repository of all knowledge," Indian Information and
Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters here.
She was replying to questions on Right to Information
(RTI) activist Arvind Kejriwal comments that his group would
focus on electoral reforms and judicial reforms after the
drafting of the Lokpal Bill.
Soni said every citizen of the country enjoyed the
right to air his views at appropriate fora or to his elected
representative but it was upto the government to incorporate
the same in Bills it plans to move in Parliament.
"What will be the nature of the law is for the
Parliament to decide. Parliament is the final authority," the
minister said.
Soni said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
government, in the past seven years, had taken several steps
that have made every person feel empowered to exercise his
rights and air his views on issues of importance.
She said the government has been making efforts to get
maximum inputs from various quarters and have a national
debate on issues of importance.
Asked whether civil society activists should contest
elections if they were keen to make laws, Soni said "it is not
necessary for every person to contest elections. Not every one
can do it. Everybody does not have the capability or the
resources required or the confidence of political parties who
can give them tickets."
"But every person has the right to get across his
views to the government through the right platform -- either
through his elected representative or through an appropriate
forum," she said.
Soni's remarks come in the wake of Indian social
activist Anna Hazare's announcement to sit on an indefinite
fast from August 16 if the Lokpal Bill was not passed by
Parliament by then.
The Monsoon session of Indian Parliament is expected
to commence in the middle of July and it is higly unlikely
that the deadline set by Hazare could be met, government
officials said.
Some political parties have refused to share their
views on the Lokpal Bill with their views with the Joint
Drafting Committee (JDC) set up in the wake of a
fast-unto-death by Hazare in April.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Left parties and
the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have conveyed to JDC chairman
and Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee that they will
share their views when the Bill is taken up in Parliament.