Dasgupta says Anna wants to be second Mahatma Gandhi

Asserting that sovereignty of Parliament can never be surrendered before the ''social activists'', Communist Party of India (CPI) lawmaker Gurudas Dasgupta on Thursday hit out at veteran social activist Anna Hazare''s demands over the Lokpal Bill, and said that the latter was trying to portray himself as the next Mahatma Gandhi.

"I appeal to the Congress Party and to the government that under no circumstances the sovereignty of parliament should be surrendered. The Lokpal bill is being sought to be introduced in unusual haste. There is only one father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, let us not allow anybody pretend to be a single crusader against corruption. We fought against corruption," Dasgupta told the Lok Sabha.

Hazare has termed the government''s Lokpal Bill to be weak, and said that the government is afraid of bringing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under the ambit of the anti-graft legislation.

"The new Lokpal Bill is very weak; it will not help in tackling corruption. Why is government afraid of CBI? If CBI comes under the Lokpal, there will be queue of ministers towards jail. The government is afraid of CBI, that''s why it does bring it within the ambit of Lokpal," said Hazare.

The government earlier in the day tabled in Parliament the Bill for creation of an anti-graft ombudsman with Constitutional status.u00a0The Union Cabinet had on Tuesday approved the Bill for creation of the Lokpal with Constitutional status.

The fresh Bill allows the Lokpal to oversee investigation of cases referred by it by the CBI. But, the Bill clearly mentions that CBI will continue to be under the government''s administrative control.u00a0

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