Experts, not individuals needed on panel: Hazare

Social activist Anna Hazare, who successfully led a campaign that made the Union government to notify the joint drafting committee for the Lok Janpal Bill, on Sunday said experts, rather than individuals, needed to be on the panel.

He pointed that the issue of who is included will be of more importance at a later stage when the Lokpal committee is formed.

?At present the committee needs experts who can draft a stronger bill. Who should be part of it and who should stay out are not important matters. This will be of importance at a later stage… when the Lokpal committee will be formed?, Hazare said.

On Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who had joined Hazare’s campaign, complaint against inclusion of father-son duo in the joint drafting committee, Hazare maintained that it is not an issue at all.

On retired IPS officer Kiran Bedi, who was involved with the campaign from the initial stage, being left out of the committee, he said individuals were not important and the committee needed experts at this stage.
?There are most able and experienced people on the Lokpal Bill drafting committee…It’s not about representation…It’s a temporary panel of two months, so we need to have experts on it. So, why somebody is on the panel and somebody isn’t shouldn’t matter,? Hazare added.

The 73-year-old Gandhian social activist had broken his 98-hour long fast here on friday morning after the government notified the joint drafting committee for the Jan Lokpal Bill.

Thousands joined the leader at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, an 18th century astronomical observatory, over the past five days and innumerable people, even in other cities, fasted alongside Hazare.

A team with five members from the government, and five from civil society, led by a chairman and a co-chairman from the two sides will now work towards drafting a bill that has been waiting for 42 years and is now finally expected to be tabled in the monsoon session of the parliament.

The 10-member panel, with Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as the chairman and former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan as the co-chairman, will also include Hazare himself and will come up with a fresh draft of the bill trashing the earlier supposedly weaker versions.

As per the government?s notification, other members from the government?s side will include Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal and Minister for Minority Affairs Salman Khursheed.

From civil society, besides Hazare and Shanti Bhushan, eminent lawyer Prashant Bhushan, retired Supreme Court Judge Santosh Hegde and Right to Information (RTI) activist Arvind Kejriwal will join the committee.

Called the Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen?s Ombudsman Bill), once passed it will give an ombudsman police-like powers to investigate and prosecute ministers, bureaucrats and judges over corruption charges without being externally influenced.

It aims to create completely independent bodies, not unlike the Supreme Court and the Election Commission, called the Lokpal at the Centre and the Lokyukta at the state levels which will look into charges of graft against ministers and government officials.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh issued a statement saying that he was happy that the government and representatives of civil society have reached an agreement in ?our mutual resolve to combat corruption?.