Anna Hazare: Govt agrees on joint panel

The ruling government at the centre has agreed to a joint committee to draft an anti-corruption ombudsman bill buckling under huge pressure of the civil society as Gandhian Anna Hazare?s fast-unto-death demanding the law entered its third day on Thursday and spread like a wildfire.

The government has agreed to issue a letter with the commitment but was unwilling to formally notify the same.

There were talks between the government and social activists like Arvind Kejriwal and Swami Agnivesh but the sticking point was the issue of a formal notification and on who would be the head of the proposed committee.

Union Minister Kapil Sibal said the government needs time and would meet again on Friday.

He said he is speaking on behalf of the government and with some authority.

The activists under the India Against Corruption (IAC) want Anna as the chairman of the committee, while some media reports said the name of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has cropped up to head the same.

The agitation for an ombudsman bill (Jan Lokpal Bill) to fight corruption entered the third day on Thursday as Hazare’s unrelenting stance on the issue forced the government to agree for a dialogue immediately.

On Thursday morning, Human Resource Development and Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal met the Prime Minister and told reporters: “We have started a channel of communication.”

He said Hazare’s India Against Corruption (IAC) members like Swami Agnivesh and Arvind Kejriwal were communicated on the government’s willingness to involve the civil society in the making of the Jan Lokpal Bill and end the impasse and “the broad parameters were agreed upon.”

“We had constructive discussion on Hazare’s demands,” said Sibal.

“All of us are together. We want to deal with corruption, we want to get rid of corruption. We want Hazare to give up fasting,” he said.

Hazare earlier made it clear that either the Prime Minister or United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi should be holding talks since they only have the decision making power.
He said the law should be drafted immediately with equal representation from the civil society and the government.

In the morning reports posted on the Facebook page of IAC said Hazare was not too well.
IAC, Hazare?s group which is organising the mass hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, also said a woman at the site has fallen ill but is refusing food or medical help.

“The government wants people to keep quiet while it loots the nation,” said Hazare.

As the standoff continues and people across India join the movement in large number like an uprising against corruption, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday morning.

Earlier on Wednesday, Union Agriculture Minister Shard Pawar stepped down from the government?s anti-graft ministerial panel on a corruption control law after Hazare took potshots at the committee for being constituted of people who themselves have corruption cases piled up against them.

Commenting on Pawar’s resignation from the Group of Ministers (GoM) Hazare, however, said “one Pawar would go and another would come.”

In a hard-hitting letter Wednesday to the Prime Minister Hazare also took head on criticism against his campaign showing no signs of calling it off.

“You say that your Group of Ministers are drafting the anti-corruption law. Many of the members of this Group of Ministers have such a shady past that if effective anti-corruption systems had been in place, some of them would have been behind bars,” Hazare wrote to the Prime Minister.

The government has strained to make it clear that it was not against the bill even as Hazare said that implementing the bill alone was not enough and that the government should look beyond its own administration to draft it.

He said he would continue to fast till the government agreed to the implementation of the Bill that is pending since the past 42 years.

In his five-point letter to the Prime Minister, Hazare trashed allegations that his fast was externally instigated. He also took on the charge of being ?impatient? saying that the country did not have an effective anti-graft system even 62 years after independence.

Hazare also said that the government framing the bill on its own, especially with several corruption scandal allegations against it and its ministers, would be undemocratic. He demanded the equal participation of civil society in drafting the bill.

Meanwhile support poured in from all corners for the fast. Online forums and social networking sites buzzed with pledges for the movement. The IAC said that it had also garnered support of international volunteer organisations.

Danseuse and social activist Mallika Sarabhai who is also fasting to express solidarity in Ahmedabad said Anna Hazare has taken a Gandhian stance to protest corruption.

“The tribal people became Naxalites after they were deprived for years and years. Here is a person who has taken just the opposite stance [with his peaceful agitation],” she said.

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan too pledged his support for the movement on Wednesday as he wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh unrging him to pay heed to Hazare?s demands. He also wrote a letter to Hazare expressing his support for the movement.

But the IAC reportedly refused to let politicians Uma Bharti and Om Prakash Chautala join their campaign. The senior politicos were apparently heckled by activists at the fast site and were shunned away.

Leaders from the principle Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other political parties tried to set up meetings with Hazare but he maintained that no politician would be allowed to share his dais with him.

Earlier the BJP had spoken in favour of the anti-corruption bill, leaving it to the government to work the procedures to formulate it.

Supporting Hazare, Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawmaker Dinesh Trivedi said the government should immediately act on the issue. He said he tried contact the office of the Prime Minister for a solution.

Kapil Sibal, who is part of a subgroup on corruption and had met the activists led by Hazare, on Wednesday said the government is open to all possible suggestions from the social activists in drafting the Jan Lokpal Bill.

?We are not opposed to any suggestion made,? he said, adding that the subgroup, which is part of a Group of Ministers (GoM) to tackle corruption, was asked to commit in principle to a joint committee on the bill before April 5.

?We said we are not empowered to commit and we need time. I am surprised that an extreme position has been taken and I appeal to their good sense not to stall the dialogue,? Sibal said.

On Thursday, Hazare said people go on hunger strike when all other roads are shut. Media reports said the senior leader had demanded that either PM Manmohan Singh or UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi take up negotiations over the matter.

Forty-two years in waiting, the Jan Lokpal Bill is touted to be India?s de facto weapon against graft. With the recent onslaught of several corruption scandals and little headway in drafting the bill the IAC had started its campaign to ensure the bill was realised.

A Lokpal means an ombudsman to root out corruption at high places in the Indian polity. The Lokpal Bill (Ombudsman Bill), 2010 is now awaiting a select parliamentary committee’s ascent.

If implemented, the Bill can allow filing complaints of corruption against the Prime Minister, ministers and all lawmakers, however, the it has been widely criticised for not being definitive enough and being poorly drafted.

The IAC, featuring prominent names like former cop Kiran Bedi and Swami Agnivesh, demand the bill be drafted with equal participation of the both the government and civil society and see a speedy implementation.