New Delhi:
The one point where there was unanimity in an all-party panel preparing a draft Lokpal Bill - giving full autonomy to the CBI in investigating corruption cases - seems to now be the key sticking point. Team Anna is not in agreement.
Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who heads the parliamentary Standing Committee looking into the Lokpal Bill, has called yet another meeting today of the MPs' panel as key provisions continue to be contentious. Yesterday's meeting was to have been the last one on the Lokpal Bill and many members of the panel are out of town.
NDTV has learnt that the panel's draft Lokpal Bill has kept the CBI's investigative wing out of the ambit of the Lokpal. The panel's draft proposes that the Lokpal will only conduct a "preliminary inquiry" before the CBI takes over investigation. And that the CBI will be under the "general supervisory superintendence of Lokpal," but will "not be answerable" to the Lokpal or administrative ministry." In effect, the CBI will not be subordinate to the Lokpal.
On CBI being under just the general jurisdiction of the Lokpal, Team Anna member told NDTV, "Lokpal is a taster of that. You are asking CBI to cook it. And you can't have any control over the cook and after that you say let's serve it. What are you going to do with the serving. Better not have it."
Team Anna, for whom this was a key issue, shakes its head and says this will reduce the Lokpal to an "Inquiry Pal," affecting its efficacy considerably. The team of civil society activists led by Gandhian anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare, has said this is not acceptable. As a concession, the panel has proposed in its draft that the CBI director should be selected by the same committee that selects the Lokpal, to ensure minimum government interference.
There have been other sticking points. Like the inclusion of the entire lower bureaucracy within the ambit of the Lokpal, which Team Anna wanted and the panel has now proposed.
The government has been loath to include the entire lower bureaucracy as it was felt that it would be an administrative nightmare to keep a watch or investigate complaints against 5.7 million people, but opposition members in the panel prevailed on this point.
Law Minister Salman Khurshid said "including (under the Lokpal ambit) lower bureaucracy would be unimaginable."
There is also still division among members of the panel on the most contentious issue of bringing the Prime Minister under the Lokpal.
NDTV has learnt that from among those present at yesterday's meeting, eight MPs, mainly from the BJP, Left and the BJD, wanted the Prime Minister to be brought under the ambit of the Lokpal; six members of the panel, mainly from the Congress wanted the Prime Minister to come under Lokpal only after he demitted office. There are five who said at yesterday's meeting that they would not like the PM to be included at all.
Team Anna is adamant that the Prime Minister must come under the Lokpal's jurisdiction. Threatening to launch another mass movement if their key demands were not addressed, Anna Hazare said the government had "betrayed" them. "This is a conspiracy to weaken the Jan Lokpal Bill. The Parliament will go on till the 22nd (December). The Party President Sonia Gandhi asked us for some time, which we gave. We will wait till the 22nd and till then if the Jan Lokpal Bill is not passed, then we will begin our campaign on the 27th (December)," Mr Hazare said.
That team is now watching keenly to see what emerges in the draft that the panel submits. The BJP-led Opposition has backed most of Anna Hazare's demands and is likely to give a dissent note on the non-inclusion of a Citizens Charter and the protection of whistleblowers - key points in Anna's Jan Lok Pal Bill.
All this could, of course, change in Parliament, since the Standing Committee's report is not binding on the government.