New Delhi:
The government appears to be on the brink of a new crisis. Anna Hazare's team of activists have rejected the recommendations of a parliamentary committee that's studying the Lokpal Bill. Anna has also threatened to start a hunger strike on December 27 if the government does not deliver a potent new law against graft this month.
"I think the recommendations of the (Parliamentary) Standing Committee, whatever they are, the Lokpal which is coming, I don't think this will have any impact on corruption. On the contrary, it is likely to dismantle whatever exists in the name of anti-corruption in this country," said Arvind Kejriwal, who is Anna's closest aide.
The Lokpal Bill has been the raison d'etre of Anna's India Against Corruption campaign this year. The bill creates a new independent ombudsman -a committee of nine members - who will investigate charges of corruption against government servants. Team Anna has its own version of the bill, called the Jan Lokpal Bill. After 74-year-old Anna's epic fast in August, Parliament formally agreed to consider Anna's three must-haves for the Lokpal. The Gandhian says the draft of the Lokpal Bill is a betrayal of this assurance.
How the Lokpal is appointed and who it will be empowered to investigate has led to a series of confrontations between the activists and the government. A parliamentary committee of 30 MPs in charge of making recommendations for the Bill has also seen deep rifts over whether the Prime Minister and junior bureaucrats should be accountable to the Lokpal, and whether the country's main investigating agency should report to the ombudsman. For now, the committee has decided to leave it upto Parliament to decide on the Prime Minister's inclusion; 57 lakhs of junior bureaucrats, it suggests, cannot be accountable to the nine members of the Lokpal. Instead, they should be investigated by the other autonomous anti-corruption body, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).
"How can the CVC with its 230 members handle 57 lakh bureaucrats?" asked Mr Kejriwal. He also said that the draft report of the parliamentary committee is trying to maintain the government's control over the CBI in an attempt to dilute the Lokpal's authority. The committee recommends that the CBI seek the approval of the Lokpal both for chargesheets and for its closure or final reports on investigations.
The CBI has taken strong exception to this on the grounds that it contradicts the objective of making the CBI autonomous. A statement from the agency said, "This provision goes against the stated objectives of making investigation agency autonomous, not answerable or liable to be monitored by either the administrative ministry or the Lokpal and protect the integrity of investigation."