Govt to decide on bringing PM within Lokpal ambit: Cong

New Delhi, Jun 17 (PTI) Congress top brass on Friday
night left the contentious issue of bringing Prime Minister
within the ambit of Lokpal to the government to decide.
Party President Sonia Gandhi, who returned from a tour
abroad, is learnt to have expressed concern over controversies
surrounding the Lokpal issue as also the fresh turmoil over
Telangana issue.
The meeting of the Congress Core Group chaired by Gandhi
with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by her side saw threadbare
discussion on the Lokpal (Ombudsman) issue.
The meeting of the Core Group took place against the
backdrop of the showdown between Anna Hazare camp and
government representatives in the Joint Committee with the
Gandhian insisting on bringing Prime Minister and higher
judiciary under the ambit of the proposed Lokpal.
Top sources in the party said the Joint Drafting
Committee and the Cabinet will have to take a call on the
issue first.
"Let the draft come first. We will give our opinion
then," a top leader in the party said.
AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said separately
that the party has left it to the government to decide on the
issue as it has been doing on several issues since the party
came to power leading a coalition at the Centre.
The Core Group meeting also discussed how to deal with the
fresh controversy over the Telangana issue in wake of the
Congress MPs, MLAs and ministers from the region threatening
to quit if the formation of separate Telangana was not
announced in the near future.

In the past one week, the leaders from Telangana have met
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, senior party leader Pranab
Mukherjee and Congress President's political secretary Ahmed
Patel.
Andhra Pradesh is the only major state where Congress
is in power on its own.
Congress leaders have been maintaining in private that
bringing Prime Minister under the ambit of Lokpal is fraught
with serious consequences and a decision in this regard needed
to be taken keeping in mind a long term view.
Senior party leader Digvijay Singh had a few days back
favoured bringing Prime Minister under the ambit of Lokpal but
within a day made a quick U-turn noting that he would go by
whatever the party decides.
At a press conference, Home Minister P Chidambaram had
yesterday said, "There are many possible answers. It is not a
binary choice of yes or no." He was asked about the civil
society members's demand for bringing Prime Minister under
Lokpal's ambit.
He said the Prime Minister can be included or kept out. A
third suggestion was that the could be brought in with
specially carved exceptions or he could be brought within the
ambit after he demits office.
A top party leader, however, feigned ignorance when asked
whether Prime Minister Singh has told the party that he has no
problem with the demand of civil society to bring Prime
Minister under the ambit of Lokpal.