Lokpal panel: BJP opposes PM's proposal to make PP Rao member, Sushma seeks President's intervention

NEW DELHI: BJP leader Sushma Swaraj has sought time from President Pranab Mukherjee in a last-ditch attempt to stop the appointment of jurist PP Rao as a member of the committee being set up to select the Lokpal.

Swaraj, leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, also submitted her written dissent on the appointment on Monday night after a meeting of the Lokpal selection committee failed to reach a consensus and Rao’s name was carried with a majority of 3-1.

"I have sought time from the President, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, as I feel that if in the first step of constituting a Lokpal body the government would go by numbers and not consensus it would spoil the achievement of setting up this body. The people have waited for 40 years for a Lokpal to be set up and this is not the way to go about it," she said.

The Lokpal Bill cleared in the previous session of Parliament requires the constitution of a selection committee which will appoint a national Ombudsman or Lokpal. Members of the committee, as mandated by Parliament, include the Prime Minister, the Lok Sabha Speaker, the Chief Justice of India or an eminent jurist appointed by him and a second eminent jurist selected by these four members.

At the meeting, Chief Justice P Sathasivam was represented by Justice HL Dattu. "The meeting was held last night at 8 pm, and a list of seven names of jurists for this position was circulated," Swaraj said on Tuesday.

The list included jurists Fali S Nariman, PP Rao, Justice K Parasaran and the chief of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies Mohan Gopal. At the meeting, Rao’s name was singled out by Manmohan Singh and was supported by Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar and Justice HL Dattu.