PM should be out of Lokpal till he demits office: Sibal

Speaking two days ahead of the last meeting of the Lokpal Bill drafting committee, Kapil Sibal was of the view that the proposed legislation should deal with corruption cases at higher level, otherwise covering 40 lakh odd central government employees would require a massive infrastructure independent of government.

At the same time, he said the government was flexible on the issue of inclusion of officials below Joint Secretary level under the Lokpal.

He was also not in favour of bringing CBI and CVC under Lokpal saying, "unnecessarily there is no need to destroy CBI (or CVC)" while having a separate investigation wing for the ombudsman.

Asked about the fast announced by Anna Hazare from August 16, he said the government will see to any step that the civil society activists take "outside drafting" the bill.

He said people rallied behind Hazare during his protest in April as they were upset with corruption but claimed most of them do not know what is Lokpal Bill.

"Anna Hazare is like the ''Pied Piper of Hamelin''. The tune is lilting and people were upset with corruption just as government is. We want to deal with it. But those who follow him, where they say corruption should be deal with, do not know what the Lokpal Bill is," he said.

Taking a dig at the Gandhian, he said, "if Anna Hazare had been in the Constituent Assembly, there would be no Constitution."

He said fasting was a way of self purification and is "not meant to be an act of aggression. I think a lot of people including Hazare has misunderstood the meaning of fasting."