'Civil society leaders behaving like legislators'

Kolkata: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday questioned the way civil society leaders had been carrying on with their movement despite the Prime Minister making it clear that the government was open to dialogue on the Lokpal Bill.

"The Prime Minister and the Home Minister have made the position of the government quite clear in respect of the issue. I have nothing more to add," Mukherjee told reporters in Kolkata to a query.

He was asked if there was a divide in the UPA over the Lokpal bill due to the protest by Anna Hazare, whose fast demanding a strong Lokpal bill entered the seventh day on Monday.

The Prime Minister had said on Saturday that there was a lot of scope for give and take on the Bill and the government was open to discussion and dialogue on the issue. He had also called for a broad national consensus on the issue.

Later, speaking at a function in Howrah, Mukherjee said that the leaders of the civil society movement for a Lokpal Bill have given an impression as if they have become legislators.

"The way the civil society movement is continuing in the country, it gives an impression that the leaders have become legislators," Mukherjee said.

Speaking at the Bengal Engineering and Science University in Shibpur in Howrah district, Mukherjee said he had been asked during a programme in Hanoi why the Indian government was giving so much importance to the civil society movement in the country.

"I told them that Indian democracy is not stagnant. It is multi-faceted. We have to consider opinions of different people and organisations. It is a new kind of process. We have to listen to them," Mukherjee said.

He said, "Pre-legislation consultation will not have to be necessarily confined to civil servants and political executives. If larger sections of society want to participate in it in a disciplined and well-established format, we can go for it.

There may be failures, there may be successes but the point is Indian democratic system is not stagnant. It is expressing itself in various formats."