Aurangabad, Oct 1 : Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary AB Bardhan has said the Central Government must respect the opinion of the people regarding the Lokpal Bill legislation, if it claims to be democratic.

"The people expressed their opinion and indignation during the movement (for the Ombudsman Bill). If any government claims to be truly democratic, it must keep the people''s sentiments in mind during further legislation on the Ombudsman Bill," Bardhan told the media.

He urged the government to pass the Bill during the Winter Session of Parliament.

The Lokpal Bill is seen as a weapon to root out corruption and nepotism from the government machinery and in public life.

Commenting on the recent face-off between Union Ministers P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee regarding the Finance Ministry''s 2G note issue, Bardhan said the matter needed to be investigated, since the people have doubts about Chidambaram''s integrity.

"Now that everyone is suspicious about Chidambaram''s role in the telecom scam, the honest way to go forward is to investigate his role. If the Prime Minister says that he has great faith in Chidambaram, then that is his personal opinion. The people are suspicious," he said.

It may be recalled that Chidambaram came under fire after a 14-page note, prepared by a senior bureaucrat in the Finance Ministry and seen by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, suggested that Chidambaram could have acted more stridently in 2008 on the spectrum pricing issue, when he was the country''s Finance Minister.

The note came into the public domain under the Right to Information (RTI) Act petition filed by Vivek Garg, a prominent activist.

The telecom scam, one of India''''s biggest graft cases ever, may have cost 39.57 billion dollars in revenue to the public exchequer as per the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). (ANI)