In his letter to the Prime Minister, Mallikarjun Kharge, who was asked to be a “special invitee,” said the invitation negated the letter and spirit of the lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013.

Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge has declined Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to a lokpal selection committee meeting, saying the “special invitee” status would not allow him to contribute to the discussion over the appointment of the anti-corruption watchdog.

Apart from the Prime Minister, Thursday’s high-powered meeting will be attended by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

“My mere presence as a special invitee without rights of participation, recording of opinion and voting would be a mere eyewash,” the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha said in a letter to Modi.

“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,” he wrote.

After a delay of almost 50 years, Parliament in 2013 approved a law to create the watchdog to look into charges of corruption against senior public functionaries but the lokpal selection has been stuck over who should be on the appointment panel.

The law requires a leader of the opposition to be member of the selection committee.

Last month, the government told the Supreme Court that the leader of the single largest opposition party would be invited to the March 1 lokpal selection meeting.

The assurance came after the court had in April 2017 asked the government to immediately appoint a lokpal, rejecting its argument certain amendments, including substituting the leader of the opposition with the leader of the single largest opposition party, to the lokpal act were pending with Parliament.

The largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha has to have at least 10% of the House’s strength – 54 out of the 543 seats – to be eligible for the post of leader of the opposition. Kharge could not get the status as the Congress could get only 44 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. At present, the party has 48 members with four byelections going in its favour.

The Congress leader recalled that the government had made changes to various laws to substitute the leader of opposition clause with the leader of the single largest party in the selection committee.

“Let me also remind you (PM) that on December 18, 2014, a bill to amend the lokpal act, 2013 on similar lines was brought for substituting ‘leader of opposition’ with the ‘leader of the single largest party’. I understand that even 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,” he said.

The Congress has alleged that the lokpal bill continues to “languish in the cold storage for want of appropriate intent, commitment and objectivity” on the part of the government.

The UPA government passed the lokpal act in 2013 and brought it into force on January 16, 2014 but the BJP government had chosen to not appoint a lokpal for nearly four years, he said.

“To anyone familiar with the BJP government’s record in not establishing and preserving the office of the lokayukta in Gujarat, this would not come as a surprise,” Kharge said. He was referring to the long tussle that the state government, then led by Modi, had with the governor over the appointment of anti-corruption watchdog.

Saying the Prime Minister of the country should act like a statesman, Kharge urged Modi to bring in an ordinance to make the change and show his government’s seriousness in appointing the lokpal.