New Delhi:
The tension between the government and civil society activists who are rallying against corruption shot up yesterday. Senior minister Kapil Sibal targeted Anna Hazare and his supporters for skipping a meeting to discuss the new Lokpal Bill (Citizen's Ombudsman Bill).
Mr Sibal cited a letter sent by Shanti Bhushan, who along with Mr Hazare, is one of the five non-government representatives that's helping draft the new bill.
(Read: Full Text of Letter)Mr Sibal said the government takes umbrage to parts of the letter like "Recent events since our last meeting don't inspire any confidence that the government is serious enough about the Lokpal bill."
Mr Bhushan also repeated that the activists want meetings of the drafting committee to be videotaped and that public consultations should be conducted on the new anti-corruption bill. "The government seems to be shying away from any kind of public debate," Mr Bhushan writes.
The government says the activists working on the Lokpal Bill were incorrect to have stayed away from the meeting in protest against the weekend developments against Baba Ramdev. The yoga icon was on a hunger strike against corruption surrounded by 65,000 followers in Delhi when the police teargassed and lathicharged the crowd. The Baba was evicted and flown to his ashram at Uttarakhand. Defending its action, the government has said that the Baba had sought and received permission for a yoga session for 5000 people - not a massive political demonstration. The Prime Minister said yesterday, "It is unfortunate that operation had to be conducted but quite honestly, there was no alternative." Mr Bhushan, who has been a vocal critic of the crackdown on Baba Ramdev's camp writes, "Helpless and unarmed people who were protesting peacefully were harmed without any provocation...the high-handed and brutal manner in which the grounds were evacuated shows that the government was committed to crush the people raising their voice against corruption."