The bill seeks to set up a Lokpal to investigate charges of corruption against ministers and lawmakers, but does not cover the prime minister, judges and bureaucrats. The bill will need parliamentary approval to become law. It is set to be introduced in parliament next week, Law Minister Salman Khursheed said. "It has been this government's agenda to bring greater transparency in functioning, this is an example of that," Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said. Slamming the bill as too weak because it did not cover the prime minister and judges, Anna Hazare, the social activist whose hunger strike in April forced the government to begin drafting the bill, said he would begin a second fast against corruption, raising the sceptre of a fresh wave of anti-government protests.
They have not cheated Anna Hazare, they have cheated the country's people," Anna Hazare, an activist whose four-day long fast for the bill in April drew wide support from a public angered by a slew of graft scandals, told Times Now television. "For this reason I, along with the entire nation, will sit on protest ... till I have no life in my body. "People have to take this as another battle for independence and take to the streets to fight corruption." The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has taken on the government over graft, said it did not "appreciate" the non-inclusion of the prime minister in the bill. Khursheed said bringing a serving prime minister in the Lokpal's remit would affect his ability to work effectively. He added that the law permitted a probe after the prime minister's term had ended. "Anyone who challenges this procedure is not challenging the government of the day, is actually challenging the parliament of our country. It is for them to decide if they want to challenge the parliament of our country or not," he said.
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