NEW DELHI (TIP): Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha on March 1 boycotted a meeting of the committee that will select an anti-corruption ombudsman, or Lokpal, in protest against being asked to attend as a “special invitee”.

The selection committee is supposed to have the Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India, Lok Sabha Speaker, the opposition leader and an eminent jurist.

Though Kharge leads the Lok Sabha’s largest opposition party, he is not the designated leader of the opposition since his party falls short of the minimum number required to claim that post.

In a strongly worded letter to the Prime Minister, Kharge said he “respectfully denied” the invite as the process was being reduced to “political pretence”.

Kharge charged that there was a concerted effort by the Union government to exclude the independent voice of the opposition from the Lokpal selection process.

“A perusal simplicitor of the Lok Pal Act, 2013; its intent and objective reflects that Leader ‘of Opposition’ cannot be substituted as a Special Invitee’. It is a matter of surprise that your government is choosing to adopt this route as a mere paper formality rather than seek any meaningful and constructive participation,” Kharge said in the letter.

The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act was passed in 2013 to constitute a statutory body to inquire into allegations of corruption against public functionaries.

“The Select Committee of Parliament had put its seal of approval on the amending bill, yet the government has failed to introduce and pass it. This amending bill continues to languish in cold storage for want to appropriate intent, commitment and objectivity on part of the government,” Kharge said in the letter.

A party that lays claim to the leader of opposition post in Lok Sabha must have at least 10% of its 545 seats. Congress, which won 44 seats in the 2014 general election, currently has 48 seats.

The meeting of the selection panel took place on Thursday evening at the official residence of the Prime Minister.

“At the outset, let me state on behalf of myself, my party and the entire opposition that the ‘Special Invitee Invitation’ is a concerted effort to exclude the independent voice of the opposition altogether from the selection process of the most important anticorruption watchdog,” Kharge wrote in the letter to Modi.