New Delhi: The ruling Congress party spokesman Manish Tewari on Wednesday recused himself from the Parliamentary standing committee tasked to finalise the Lokpal Bill.
Tewari, embroiled in controversy for an anti-Anna Hazare tirade, preferred to opt out of the committee rather than face the ignominy of being dropped after his comments had enraged a wide section of the Congress party, besides the opposition and Team Anna.
The term of the 31-member standing committee, comprising 21 members from Lok Sabha and ten from Rajya Sabha, ended yesterday. It is to be reconstituted by the weekend based on a proportional representation system depending upon the strength of all political parties.
The next committee meeting is scheduled for September 7 while it has to submit its report by the end of October so the contentious Lokpal Bill can be passed in the winter session of Parliament.
"I am recusing myself from the Standing Committee of Law and Justice because I do not want even a shadow of controversy upon the deliberations of the bill," Tewari, who represents Punjab's Ludhiana constituency in the Lok Sabha, said.
Tewari had accused anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare who undertook a hugely successful hunger strike that lasted 12 days of being steeped in corruption from head to toe.
‘Armchair fascists'
Even earlier he had said that Team Anna, as Hazare's close associates are called, comprised of armchair fascists, overground Marxists, closet anarchists funded by invisible donors.
After keeping quiet while Hazare fasted, Tewari was forced by the party to apologise to Hazare. "I know some of my recent utterances have caused hurt to Mr Hazare. I regret the same and I would like to appeal to him as a citizen of this country to end his fast... In the course of political cut and thrust, certain things are inadvertently said which cause pain," Tewari had said.
His apology, however, failed to satisfy Team Anna. It is understood two members of Team Anna who called on the standing committee chairman Abhishek Manu Singhvi once again reiterated on Wednesday Tewari's presence in the committee was not acceptable to them.
Hazare's lawyer Milind Pawar has already announced he would file a defamation case against Tewari in a Pune court next week.
Besides Tewari, it is almost certain that the former Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh would cease to be a member of the standing committee while chances of the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's continuation in the committee is also doubtful.
Both these leaders have been charged in different corruption cases. Even so, the chances of Amar Singh continuing in the committee were doubtful after he was expelled from the Samajwadi Party, which will have to nominate one member to the committee based on its strength in Parliament.
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