Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 16 (IANS) Karnataka Lokayukta and member of the Lokpal bill drafting committee Santosh Hegde Thursday slammed the government for indulging in mudslinging and insisting on the adoption of its version of the anti-graft bill.

“We gave them our draft and they gave us their version. By the looks of it, the government’s version will become the law. The gGovernment is indulging in mudslinging, making unfounded allegations,” Hegde told a news channel.

Civil society activists Wednesday met government representatives to thrash out the key issues in drafting the Lokpal bill. However, the meeting ended on a bitter note as there was no consensus, and a decision was taken that both the sides will present their versions of the bill to the cabinet.

“Yesterday, some members of the sarkari team got angry with us because some words like dhokha (deceit) were used. So, they are sensitive about the issue and but we have no right to be sensitive about it? Let them speak in the public platform what they want but we can’t speak in the public platform?” he said.

He advised the government to discourage those who were indulging in mudslinging against the civil society members.

“You see the manner in which they (politicians) speak and the words they use. What are the leaders in that party doing? Can’t they tell them to not speak about it?” he asked.

Hegde added that he had always maintained his calm despite the prolonged attacks.

“First, it happened a couple of months back, I didn’t react and the matter closed. The second was Mr. Janardhan Poojari’s reaction, then Digvijay Singh said, but I didn’t react to that. Fourth, when B.K. Hari Prasad spoke…I didn’t react to that,” he said.