INDIA’S PARLIAMENT has been unable to pass an anti-corruption Bill, casting doubt on the controversial legislation that has been awaiting passage for 42 years.
The Rajya Sabha or upper house heatedly debated the bill for more than 13 hours on Thursday before adjourning at midnight amid chaos without clearing the appointment of a “Lokpal” or ombudsman to prosecute corrupt politicians and civil servants.
The Bill was cleared by parliaments’ elected lower house on Tuesday but needed to be similarly passed by the upper house before becoming law.
At one point in the debate, one opposition MP snatched a copy of the legislation and angrily tore it up, triggering a cacophonic response in the house.
Parliament will now reconvene early next year, but it is unclear whether the “Lokpal Bill” will be re-introduced or simply lapse like it has several times since it was first moved in 1969.
Prime minister Manmohan Singh’s federal coalition, challenged by 74-year-old anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare, had hoped the upper house would clear the Bill. But the ruling alliance has 94 MPs there and needed a simple majority of 122 members to ensure its passage, which was impossible given the widespread opposition the bill faced, largely over perceived ineffectualness.
The legislative showdown was the culmination of months of agitation and hunger strikes by Mr Hazare that brought tens of thousands people fed up with endemic corruption across the country on to the streets, putting Mr Singh’s scandal-ridden administration on the defensive.
Other than a telecom bribery scandal estimated to have caused the government losses of nearly $39 billion, Mr Singh’s government faces charges, among numerous others, of financially mismanaging last year’s Commonwealth Games and diverting homes meant for war widows to senior politicians in Mumbai.