Anna Hazare Latter to PM

Dr Manmohan Singh,

Prime Minister of India,

7, Race Course Road,

New Delhi.

Dear Dr Manmohan Singh ji,

You are one of the most honest Prime Ministers that the country has had. It is ironical that your own government should seek to take the Prime Minister out of the purview of Lokpal’s investigations.

As of today, the Prime Minister is covered under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Under that law, any allegation of corruption against a Prime Minister can be investigated. No exception has been made for either the Prime Minister or any of his activities (like external affairs, defence etc). Every activity of the Prime Minister can be investigated under Prevention of Corruption Act.

However, as of today, the investigations are done by CBI, which is directly under the control of the Prime Minister himself. The only change that we are proposing in the present system is that rather than being investigated by an agency directly under his own control, let the PM be investigated by an agency which is independent, like the Lokpal. We are not proposing any other change.

The five ministers, who are members of the drafting committee, unanimously feel that the Prime Minister should be kept out of Lokpal’s investigations. The Constitution of India does not grant any such immunity to the Prime Minister. Only President has been granted immunity from any investigations and trials.

So, in order to take the PM out of Lokpal’s ambit or even to take some part of his jurisdiction out of the ambit of Lokpal’s investigations, the government would need to amend the Constitution and the Prevention of Corruption Act and grant him immunity similar to that enjoyed by the President. Is the government planning to do that? Why? 

We thought we would get a better and stronger anti-corruption regime under your tenure. On the contrary, the government seems to be shrinking the scope of anti-corruption regime. Taking the Prime Minister out of any probe would be a retrograde step.

Government’s stand is that a Prime Minister under scanner would become “dysfunctional”. Do you really feel so? You have worked with both Mr Rajiv Gandhi and Mr Narasimha Rao. Did you get a feeling that Mr Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, become “dysfunctional” due to Bofors probe? Or did Mr P V Narasimha Rao become “dysfunctional” due to probe in Jharkhand Mukti Morcha case?

The Prime Minister is privy to a lot of security related sensitive information. Suppose tomorrow, a corrupt person like Madhu Koda or A Raja or any of the Reddy Brothers became Prime Minister. Don’t you feel that the security of the country itself would be seriously compromised if Prime Minister enjoyed complete immunity from any investigations and trials? There is no civilised country that we are aware of where the head of government is immune from corruption investigations.

We remember that in the past, you had yourself offered to be brought under the purview of Lokpal Bill. Then why are your own ministers opposing your inclusion in Lokpal’s ambit? Is there a disconnect or communication gap within the government?

Interestingly, three out of the five ministers, who are members of the joint drafting committee, have themselves advocated inclusion of the Prime Minister in Lokpal Bill on earlier occasions.

Shri Pranab Mukherjee, as the Chairperson of the parliamentary standing committee on Lokpal Bill in 2001 under NDA regime, had himself recommended that Prime Minister should be covered under the ambit of Lokpal. The then Prime Minister Sh Atal Bihari Vajpayee agreed to that recommendation.

Later in January 2011, Mr Moily, Law Minister in the present government, suggested inclusion of Prime Minister in Lokpal’s purview in the draft law prepared by him. This draft law was sent to the home ministry under Mr Chidambaram, which also concurred with this view in its comments made in March 2011.

So, it appears that in the last ten years from the year 2001 upto March 2011, the government’s view has been that the Prime Minister should be brought within the purview of Lokpal. Now, all the three ministers have suddenly taken a U-turn and they appear to be adamant on keeping the PMO out of Lokpal’s ambit.

We are wondering what happened post March 2011, which prompted the government to suddenly take a U-turn on this issue?

Till now the Prime Minister could be investigated by CBI. Why should an honest Prime Minister like you be scared of being investigated by an independent Lokpal?

We would be grateful if you could kindly clarify government’s position in this regard.

With warm regards

Yours sincerely,

K.B. Hazare, Shanti Bhusan, Justice Santosh Hegde, Prashant Bhusan, Arvind Kejriwal