New Delhi:
On July 3, political parties will meet to discuss the Lokpal Bill which has established itself as the persistent political headline of this summer.
The Bill is intended to help rout corruption among politicians and bureaucrats. How has become a fierce dissent between the government and activists. Five ministers and five activists led by Gandhian Anna Hazare were assigned to draft the Bill. So dramatic were the differences between the two sides that India now has two drafts of the same Bill.
It was understood that both drafts would be studied at the meeting of political parties on July 3. But over the weekend, the government released a comparative statement on the two versions of the Bill. Shanti Bhushan, an activist on the Drafting Committee, has written to Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to complain that the government has misrepresented the activist-version of the Bill. "Whereas there are inaccuracies at many places, the sections from Jan Lokpal Bill have also not been fully quoted at many other places. Any person reading this chart will be completely in the dark about the provisions of the Jan Lokpal Bill," he said.
(Read: Shanti Bhushan's letter to Pranab Mukherjee)Mr Bhushan also states that recent comments by Law Minister Veerappa Moily suggest that it is this comparative statement that will be circulated among political parties. This, Mr Bhushan says, is a violation of the Drafting Committee's agreement to share both drafts of the Bill. At the last meeting of the Drafting Committtee, he said, five members endorsed one draft whereas the other five endorsed another.
"Therefore, both the drafts enjoy equal weightage as far as the outcome of the joint committee is concerned. I would still urge you to treat both the drafts as the outcome of the joint committee", Mr Bhushan said.
The unique composition of the Drafting Committee - five ministers and five activists - was the result of a nearly-week-long strike by Mr Hazare in April. His bargaining power was a derivative of massive support and goodwill from middle-class India which had spent its fall confronting a series of scandals of governmental venality. Mr Hazare insisted that any new law on corruption would have to include representatives of civil society. He had his way.
Irreconcilable differences emerged between the ministers and Team Anna, who accused the government of diluting the Bill to a futile exercise. Mr Hazare has announced a fast on August 16 to protest this.