Congress takes on Hazare, Ramdev, BJP, launches campaign

Kolkata (PTI) - Senior Congress leader and
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Sunday hit out at social
activist Anna Hazare and yoga guru Ramdev over the civil
society's anti-corruption movement, accusing them of
undermining democratic institutions and did not spare the BJP
either.
Mukherjee while announcing Congress' plans to launch a
nationwide anti-corruption campaign took on BJP, India's
princiapl opposition party, saying it was backing Hazare and
Ramdev to gain support of people after its debacle in the
recent Assembly polls and accused the party of providing
"logistical support" to their agitations and resorting to
"unconstitutional practice".
"The Constitution has given the power to legislate only
to Parliament and the state Assemblies. If 5,000 or 6,000
people dictate from outside what the Parliament ought to do,
this will weaken democracy," he told a press conference. The
campaign is seen as a bid by Congress to counter the movement
by Hazare and Ramdev.
In hard hitting remarks targeting Bhartiya Janta
Party(BJP), Mukherjee said, "when the parties are rejected by
the people and if they want to resort to unconstitutional
practice it is totally unacceptable. They are providing
logistic support to all those agitations." He however did not
name the party.
"In a democratic system, in a democratic society,
everybody has a right to agitate on certain issues which he
feels right or wrong....Those who want to dismantle the
process of Constitution, Congress party will fight against
them," he said.
Mukherjee also ruled out acceding to Hazare's demand
for videography of the drafting process of the
Lokpal(Ombudsman) Bill, saying this was not possible in view
of the fact that the drafting committee members will express
their views "freely".
Their views, however, would be available on audio
recording, he said.
Referring to Hazare's August 15 deadline for the
passage of the Lokpal Bill, Mukherjee said, "we have suggested
that the Bill be tabled in Parliament during the monsoon
session. But who can say when the House will pass it? The
Parliament is supreme."(MORE) PTI SBR
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"In a democratic system, in a democratic society,
everybody has a right to agitate on certain issues which he
feels right or wrong....Those who want to dismantle the
process of Constitution, Congress party will fight against
them," Mukherjee said.
Mukherjee also ruled out acceding to Hazare's demand
for videography of the drafting process of the
Lokpal(Ombudsman) Bill, saying this was not possible in view
of the fact that the drafting committee members will express
their views "freely".
Their views, however, would be available on audio
recording, he said.
Referring to Hazare's deadline of August 15 for passing
the Lokpal Bill, Mukherjee said the Centre had suggested that
the draft Lok Pal Bill would be placed during the monsoon
session of the Parliament.
It was not possible, however, to give a timeframe by when
the bill would be passed, he said.
"We have suggested that the Bill be tabled in Parliament
during the monsoon session. But who can say when the House
will pass it? The Parliament is supreme."
Asked why the government had initiated dialogue with
Hazare and Ramdev, he said, "We wanted to give them a chance.
If we did not talk, we would be accused of arrogance. Now that
the government has talked, it is accused of being weak. Like
questions are being raised as to why four ministers went to
the airport to talk to Baba Ramdev and not to receive him."
Mukherjee, who circulated a note in English about his
party's views on the issues, said that debates, discussions
and seminars would be organised from the district to the block
levels to put forth the party's views.