Cannot trust PM, Sonia to bring stringent Lokpal bill : Anna

PATNA: Questioning UPA government's commitment to root out corruption in the country, anti-graft activist Anna Hazare today said he does not trust Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi for enactment of a stringent Lokpal Bill.

"Both PM and Sonia Gandhi can no more be trusted to bring a stringent Lokpal bill to root out corruption ... Had they been committed to the issue it would not have taken two years to take concrete decision in this regard," Hazare told reporters here.

Describing the Lokpal Bill approved by the union cabinet as 'a farce', Hazare said he had written a letter to the Congress president in reply to her letter to him seeking clarification whether the proposed bill will be a stringent one and whether CBI and the CVC will be kept out of the government's control.

But she has not responded to these clarifications, he said and trashed the proposed Lokpal Bill. "The Centre is trying to befool the people by going ahead with it."

If the government went ahead with the enactment of a 'weak' Lokpal Bill, he would launch another agitation, Hazare, who had sat on indefinite hunger strike at the Ramlila grounds in Delhi last year to press for the Jan Lokpal Bill, said.