New Delhi:
At the 11th hour of protracted confabulations, a parliamentary Standing Committee drafting the Lokpal Bill has seen new flip-flops. On the inclusion of the lower bureaucracy - a major sticking point with members of the civil society, who are threatening to launch another mass agitation if all their demands on the issue are not met.
Sources say that in its final draft the all-party panel will recommend excluding the lower bureaucracy - called group C - from the ambit of the Lokpal, an anti-corruption ombudsman. This is an important omission and likely to be a big sore point with anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare and his team.
Opposition members on the panel, who have backed most of Anna Hazare's demands, were reported to have prevailed on this point at what was to have been the panel's last meeting yesterday, but the head of the committee Congressman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said today, "If Opposition members felt group C had been included in yesterday's meetings, that's their point of view. Wait for the report." Mr Singhvi called a special meeting today to discuss contentious points.
The government has been loath to include the entire lower bureaucracy as it feels that it would be an administrative nightmare for a nine-member Lokpal to keep a watch or investigate complaints against 5.7 million people. Law Minister Salman Khurshid said today that "including (under the Lokpal ambit) lower bureaucracy would be unimaginable."
The one point where there was unanimity in the panel - giving full autonomy to the CBI in investigating corruption cases - will also be a sore point. Team Anna is not in agreement.
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.
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 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 complained that in the draft now almost ready, "the sense of the House has not been taken." They are 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.