New Delhi:
Today's crucial meeting on the Lokpal Bill seemed like a case of one step forward, two steps back. And that one step forward was a baby step.
The ministers working on the Lokpal Bill feel their meeting today with activists headed by Gandhian Anna Hazare was a "breakthrough."
Team Hazare was less effusive. While agreeing that today's talks were "cordial," the activists said that all key points of differences remain, and in fact two new ones have emerged.
The Drafting Committee of the Lokpal Bill, which combines five ministers and five non-elected representatives headed by Mr Hazare, has recently seen bitter and public differences of opinion. The committee will meet again tomorrow at 4.30 pm. Before then, the ministers and activists will swap drafts of the Lokpal Bill.
"The atmosphere was non-acrimonious... there was broad consent," said Kapil Sibal, one of the five ministers on the Drafting Committee. Mr Sibal said there was consensus between the two sides on "80-85%" of the issues." He also said that both sides have agreed not to generate two drafts of the same bill. "Both sides feel we should move towards a consensus... in areas of divergence, we will formulate a draft in which those areas will be spelled out. So that when the matter goes to the political parties who are to be consulted in July, areas of divergence of opinion and the alternatives are put before political leaders and political parties," he said.
Arvind Kejriwal, an activist-member of the committee, said that the earlier sticking points - like whether the Lokpal bill should cover the Prime Minister and senior judges were discussed but not resolved. He also said that new differences have emerged over who will select the 11 members of the Lokpal. The ministers, Mr Kejriwal said, want politicians - mainly those from the government - to choose the Lokpal. "This could be very dangerous for India," said Mr Kejriwal, who said judges and administrators should be included in the selection committee. He also said that the ministers want the government alone to have the right to ask the Supreme Court to investigate charges of corruption against the Lokpal. Team Anna believes that all citizens should have the right to move the Supreme Court for the removal of a Lokpal member.
Mr Sibal had told NDTV in an interview on Saturday that contrary to earlier statements by Team Anna, ministers and activists would not send two drafts of the Lokpal Bill to the Cabinet for review. The activists today seemed to have come around to this. There was also agreement on the fact that NGOs and other organizations funded by the government will be covered by the Lokpal. And that the assets of those convicted for corruption will be used to cover any losses incurred by the government as a result of their malpractices.
Mr Hazare has warned that if the Lokpal Bill is not passed in Parliament by August 15, he will go on a hunger strike. (
Read: Anna warns of second fast) The government has said that whether or not Mr Hazare's team helps out, it is determined to submit the draft of the bill by June 30.
The task of developing the Lokpal Bill (Citizen's Ombudsman Bill) was entrusted to a 10-member Drafting Committee after Mr Hazare's hunger strike against corruption in April. Lakhs of Indians, tired of a maze of financial scams that the government seemed to be lost in, marched on the streets to support Mr Hazare. Unprepared for the onslaught of congratulatory public opinion for Mr Hazare, the government reluctantly agreed that five ministers and five representatives of civil society would together design the Lokpal Bill.
Eight meetings later, the committee has been engulfed by publicly-traded fusillades. In an editorial in the newspaper
The Hindu today, Mr Bhushan accused the government of an "arrogance of power." He writes, "We are repeatedly being told that laws have to be made by the elected representatives of the people and civil society has no role to play. This view shows an arrogance of power. Those running the government have forgotten that they are merely the representatives of the people and they must run the government and make laws as per their wishes. Therefore, while deciding which Lokpal Bill to pass, they must find out what the people want and, if they have any doubt about that, they can have a referendum on the disputed issues."
For its part, the government has made it clear that it has run out of patience with Team Anna and its demands. Congress President Sonia Gandhi sent a curt reply to Mr Hazare yesterday, subtly reproaching him for making his note to her a few days ago available to the media. Mr Hazare had complained that the Congress was linking him to the right-wing RSS in an attempt to damage his credibility. Mrs Gandhi said in her note that she had made her position clear in an earlier letter (in that note dated April 19, she had said she does not support smear campaigns). (
Read: Sonia Gandhi's terse reply to Anna Hazare's letter)
Over the weekend, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee who is co-chairman of the Drafting Committee held a series of meetings with other ministers like Kapil Sibal and Salman Khursheed who are on the Lokpal Panel. Mr Sibal, in an interview to NDTV, said that the government had a compromise formula for the fractious issue of whether the Lokpal Bill should apply to the Prime Minister. He suggested that it could, once the PM's term in office is completed. (
Watch) Activists have earlier refused that offer.