Kharge turns down invitation to attend Lokpal selection panel meet
New Delhi [India], March 15 (ANI): Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, rejecting the offer to be a special invitee for the selection of the Lokpal, the anti-corruption ombudsman.
ANI
Mar 15, 2019 15:00 IST
![Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge to boycott Lokpal Selection Committee meeting on Friday [Photo/ANI]](https://d3lzcn6mbbadaf.cloudfront.net/media/details/D1rnrqhWwAAi26r.png)
New Delhi [India], March 15 (ANI): Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, rejecting the offer to be a special invitee for the selection of the Lokpal, the anti-corruption ombudsman.
The Centre had urged Kharge to be a part of the selection process after the apex court gave it ten days to choose the dates on which the Selection Committee would meet to appoint a Lokpal.
The Committee was scheduled to start the process of choosing candidates on Friday.
“A Special Invitee would not have any rights of participation in the process of selection of the Lokpal and I cannot accept the opposition being made voiceless in a critical matter”, the letter to the Prime Minister read.
In his letter, the Congress leader also alleged that the central Government had been “using his refusal to attend the meetings as a special invitee as an excuse for not appointing a Lokpal over the last 5 years.”
“The fact that all meetings have been held as scheduled and a search committee was formed that has shortlisted names for the Lokpal show that the intention of the government was only to exclude the opposition from this crucial process,” Kharge stated in his letter.
“By excluding the opposition, this process is being vitiated and I would like to caution the government that anyone selected through this one-sided process stays decline to accept this position,” he added. (ANI)
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