The Congress obviously failed to foresee this,but the formulation of the Lokayukta Bill vis-a-vis the constitution of Lokayuktas united the partys regional allies as well as opponents. As speaker after speaker from regional parties held forth in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday,they slammed the provision making it mandatory for the states to appoint Lokayuktas. Do not undermine state legislatures, Kalyan Banerjee,speaking on behalf of the Trinamool Congress,said. Do not enter into the field of state legislatures as it would be a dangerous proposition. Turning to HRD Minister Kapil Sibal,he said: I would like to know whether Part III of the Bill is required to be taken as a model or it has to be adopted. If it has to be adopted,then I think,it encroaches upon the federal set-up of the Constitution. He referred to Sibals explanation about Articles 252 and 253 and said,My humble question is this: Can you do a thing,which you cannot do in a direct manner,in an indirect manner? He was saying they are not encroaching upon the field of the state legislature. He may please reply whether Section 81(7)(b) of the Bill encroaches upon the domain of the state legislative Assembly or not. He said if this type of Bill has not still come in the states,then this does not mean that the state legislatures or the chief ministers are in favour of corruption. The DMK stake over the rights of the states is not exactly the same as before,for,it is no longer in power in Tamil Nadu. However,it did not deter party member T K S Elangovan from asserting: If we pass an Act for Lokayukta,then we are trespassing into the powers of the state. As a member of the DMK,we are opposed to any trespassing into the powers of the state. I want to make this point to the government Article 323 (b) itself is enough for states to make law for the Lokpal. Sharifuddin Shariq,whose National Conference shares power with Congress in J&K,said: The federal structure of the country should not come under any strain. Do not impose your Lokayuktas on states, he said. Dont apply coercion. The Bahujan Samaj Party may have made things easier for Congress by walking out before voting Tuesday night,but party floor leader Dara Singh Chauhan took a clear line over Lokayukta during the debate. Babasaheb Amdekars Constitution is being insulted, he said,demanding that the federal structure should not be undermined. He recommended that in order to strengthen the federal structure,Lokayukta should be left to the state government. If the powers of the states would be usurped,I suspect an intention to weaken the federal structure. JD-Us Sharad Yadav termed the mandatory nature of the Lokayukta clause a robbery of the rights of states. We dont accept that. I want to submit that the (Article) 253 issue is a violation of the Constitution, he said. He told the government,Sushmaji has given an amendment accept that. The issue brought CPMs Basudeb Acharia on the same page as Trinamools Kalyan Banerjee. Acharia said,The attacks which are taking place on our federal structure,will weaken the basic structure of our Constitution. This will not be proper. He told the government to formulate a model Act and tell the states to constitute Lokayuktas in accordance with that. We have seen how clauses of the states have been encroached during the last 64 years, Acharia said. BJDs Bhartuhari Mahtab said,The Bill strikes at the functional autonomy of state guaranteed by the Constitution. He felt it is not for the Union Government to impose the structure and functions of Lokayukta on state governments but it is for the respective state governments to decide what they want bearing in mind their specific requirements. AIADMKs M Thambidurai said: We are for Lokpal,but when you include Lokayukta,we are opposing that. He said the AIADMK had taken this stand because you are infringing into the rights of the states.
