NEW DELHI: At least 14 ministers in the UPA government would have been in jail if an effective Lokpal system was in place, said Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday.
Addressing protesters during Anna Hazare’s daylong agitation here, Kejriwal took the names of many politicians, including ministers Sharad Pawar, S M Krishna, P Chidambaram, Praful Patel, Kapil Sibal, Kamal Nath, Farooq Abdullah, Ajit Singh, Sri Prakash Jaiswal, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Vilasrao Deshmukh, M K Alagiri and G K Vasan.
“If Lokpal Bill comes into force, FIRs will be lodged against 14 ministers in the Union government. But who will punish people like them? The Delhi Police or the CBI? No one knows because these people will never pass the Lokpal Bill,” Kejriwal said.
He said 162 MPs have criminal cases against them. Of this, at least 20 were attempt to murder cases.
Kejriwal said MPs, including RJD chief Lalu Prasad, SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and DMK’s A Raja and Kanimozhi, have corruption cases against them. “Can such a Parliament pass the Lokpal Bill? Can such a Parliament pass a bill against corruption,” he said.
Attacking the BJP, he said the party was now planning to reinstate Yeddyurappa as Karnataka chief minister.
“He was removed on corruption charges. There are corruption cases against Mulayam and Jayalalithaa also,” Kejriwal said, while demanding that the government should appoint fast-track courts to probe charges against parliamentarians. The courts should dispose of such cases in six months.
On the porngate issue, he said “the BJP MLAs sit inside and watch blue films and BJP ministers give them a clean chit”. Kejriwal said instead of discussing things that people wanted them to in Parliament, the members were taking up issues that are of interest to them.
Manish Sisodia accused ministers — Chidambaram and Sibal — of trying to crush their movement.