Casteist forces behind Jan Lokpal, win polls, bring your Bill: Mayawati

Chief Minister Mayawati today put her weight behind fears that casteist and communal forces were trying to subvert the Constitution in the garb of the Jan Lokpal Bill, and asked the Centre to ensure that the legislation was created “within the framework of the Constitution”, and gave proper representation to SCs, STs, OBCs and religious minorities at all important levels.

Addressing a press conference, the Chief Minister added: “The BSP will not support the Lokpal Bill till proper representation of SC/ST and backward classes in the drafting committee of the Bill is ensured as per the Constitution.”

Contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, win a majority and then frame the kind of Bill you want, Mayawati dared Team Anna.

Disagreeing with several points that Hazare and his aides wanted the Centre to accept, she opposed the demand to bring all employees, to the lowest ranks, under the ambit of the Lokpal. Only officers who hold high posts should be kept in the purview because “if officers who hold high posts are free from corruption, they would be in a position to put a check on corruption by lower-level employees”, she said.

A decision on the Lokayukta, the Chief Minister added, should be left to the states. “In UP, the Lokayukta institution is effectively working” and the state government had taken actions on the basis of Lokayukta’s reports, she said.

Regarding Hazare’s demand on citizens’ charters, Mayawati said the UP government had already made a UP Janhit Guarantee Act that prescribes a time limit for citizens’ work and financial penalties for government employees who did not stick to these.

On the demand to bring the judiciary and Prime Minister under the ambit of the Lokpal, Mayawati said her party would support a consensus over these issues in Parliament.

Critising both the UPA and NDA, she added: “They must stop their cat and mouse game.”

Mayawati also warned the supporters of Anna Hazare’s movement not to take law into their hands in UP. “If they continue their movement peacefully, the government has no objection. But if they try to take the law into their hands, the government would take legal action,” she said.