Prashant Bhushan dares Arvind Kejriwal to open debate on Lokpal bill

NEW DELHI: Ousted AAP leader Prashant Bhushan on Sunday raised the decibel level a notch by daring chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to an open debate on the Lokpal Bill even as his father, Shanti Bhushan, likened the CM to Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister.

At a joint press conference, Prashant called AAP a bunch of liars for claiming there was no difference between the Lokpal bills of 2014 and 2015.

"There is a marked change. There is greater political interference and the investigation mechanism will be provided by the government, which will make the Lokpal a puppet, like the CBI. The greater concern is about the Lokpal's right to investigate Central ministers and officers. While I do not have a personal problem with that, this clause has been put in purposely to have the bill stalled at the Centre. This will be used as propaganda by the AAP government to say they passed the bill but the Centre is sitting on it," said Prashant.



He added it was "unfortunate" and "disgusting" that rather than addressing questions on pointed aspects of the bill, AAP had stooped to false propaganda and blatant lies.

While AAP chose not to respond, saying it would rather discuss the matter in the assembly, it took to the social media to criticise Prashant for abusing party spokesperson Raghav Chadha during a TV debate on Saturday. Prashant reportedly called Chadha 'badzaat' and 'behuda'.

Chadha said: "I will not stoop to his level. When Congress was at the Centre, Prashant Bhushan made sure that Kejriwal took action against a corrupt minister like Veerappa Moily and even argued in court saying that since the act had taken place in Delhi, the state government had territorial jurisdiction over it. Now that BJP is in power, he wants to save them by opposing this provision. This clearly shows that he is acting at the behest of BJP. Volunteers like me had felt betrayed when Shantiji and his family supported Kiran Bedi for chief minister at the last election."

Sources in the CM office, meanwhile, said: "The Bhushans have indulged in a breach of privilege by releasing the bill before it was tabled in the House. It's only in the draft stage and we are looking at a meaningful discussion on it. Two entire days have been dedicated to the bill. What's the hurry to criticise it?"

Swaraj Abhiyan, an independent organisation formed by former AAP members like Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav, Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha, will protest outside the assembly on Monday against the bill to protest against the bill.