Ready to be under Lokpal, but cabinet must agree: PM

New Delhi: Manmohan Singh was ready to be within the ambit of the Lokpal but a final decision on the issue would be taken by his cabinet colleagues, said one of the editors who attended a media interaction with the prime minister Wednesday.

"The prime minister said he was ready to be under Lokpal ambit. But cabinet colleagues would take the final decision," Alok Mehta, editor of Nai Duniya, told reporters.

Mehta was speaking to reporters outside the prime minister's 7, Race Course Road residence.

The prime minister, who met five editors for two hours, talked on various subjects.

"He (prime minister) says that he doesn't mind putting himself in the purview of the Lokpal bill but the cabinet doesn't think it proper, and therefore he wants to take the opposition parties, civil society members, as well as the cabinet and UPA members (into consultation) before arriving at a consensus," Kumar Ketkar, editor of Divya Marathi, told reporters.

"He is not opposed to his own inclusion in the Lokpal bill. He says he cannot decide everything... it has to be done by parliament, the parties, and the media and the civil society. He cannot just talk of his own opinion; it has to be done through a political process," he added.

Manmohan Singh also said he had taken the "first initiative" to approach civil society activist Anna Hazare and yoga guru Ramdev.

Civil rights activists, led by Hazare, want to bring the prime minister within the ambit of Lokpal (ombudsman).

 

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