Final Touches to Lokpal Bill Today

The government is giving final touches to the Lokpal Bill to be presented in the parliament. The draft will be discussed in the cabinet today. As expected the government's draft excludes the Prime Minister during his tenure and until he demits office. The bill also excludes all Union Ministers, Group A officers, higher bureaucracy. MPs are also exempted from what they say or do in parliament, and the judiciary have also been kept out of the bill. This is a big difference from the draft of Anna Hazare.

As a formality, the draft of Anna Hazare team will be put as an appendix to the cabinet note.  Lawyer Shanti Bhushan has written a letter to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee requesting him to present both the drafts in the parliament, as discussed. Anna Hazare has contended that the government's version of the Lokpal Bill falls "far short" of the people's expectations.  The Gandhian has threatened to go on an indefinite fast from August 16 if a "proper" draft of the Bill is not brought before Parliament. Hazare  had met with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on June 30, along with a host of other senior leaders to convince them to adopt his version of the Lokpal Bill.
 

Modi Is Not Our PM: Owaisi

MIM is a recognized state political party based in the Indian state of Telangana, with its head office in the old city of Hyderabad, which has its roots in the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen founded in 1927. Unlike most of the regional and national level parties, MIM party leaders ‘fight’ only for the well-being of Muslims, whereas no other party has such communal feelings. In their each and every speech, MIM leaders speak only about Muslims. If these leaders are here to fight for Muslims, then why there are no development works are happening in old city area for decades. Akbaruddin Owaisi faced criticism for making hate remarks on Narendra Modi and Hindus. Recently, his elder brother Asaduddin Owaisi made some notorious annotations. In a one-on-one debate between BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra and Asaduddin Owaisi on the topic of demonetization in a popular Hindi channel, the former left no stone unturned in exposing the latter’s communal designs. Owaisi claimed how most of the Muslim community still remains unbanked and that demonetization has caused severe inconvenience to Muslims. He even went on to say that ATM’s in Muslim-dominated areas weren’t fed enough money. He indirectly alleged that the Modi government hadn’t done anything for Muslims. Even after being pressurized Owaisi didn’t call Narendra Modi as his Prime Minister. He went on said, “Your Prime Minister…” On the other hand, Sambit spoke wisely and called Owaisi a leader of small stature because he talked only of Muslims. He said that no area was Muslim or Hindu and that all areas belonged to India. Owaisi was constantly quoting an RBI report, to which Sambit challenged him to show where the RBI had used the word ‘Muslim’. Sambit even said that if a Muslim leader speaks of Muslims it’s not an issue, but the moment a VHP leader speaks of Hindus people go crazy accusing them of imposing the Hindutva ideology. The most amazing of his counters was to Owaisi’s claims of Muslims not having been brought into the banking system. Sambit said that when banks or ATMs are to be opened in Muslim areas leaders like Owaisi shout that banking is un-Islamic and that Muslims should refrain from it! This video of debate between Sambit Patra and Asaduddin Owaisi is going viral in social media.