New Delhi:
More birthing pains for the law that's aimed at checking corruption in India. After the seventh meeting of the drafting panel today, the activists who're drafting the bill along with five ministers said that the meeting was a write-off. "It was not good...nothing came of it," said Arvind Kejriwal, an activist-member of the committee.
(Watch)Mr Kejriwal accused the government of wanting to "kill Lokpal before it is born."
(Read: Govt wants to kill Lokpal Bill: Statement from activists)The irreconcilable differences between the ministers and the activists were underscored by Kapil Sibal, who said that if no consensus is reached, two versions of the Lokpal Bill will be forwarded to the Cabinet. "Structurally there is no convergence of opinion as to what the Lokpal should be," Mr Sibal, a senior minister, said.
(Watch) The committee will meet again on June 20 and 21, he said.
The government has been concerned about non-elected representatives actually drafting critical legislation, rather than just contributing with suggestions. That right was hard-fought and won by Gandhian Anna Hazare, whose nearly week-long hunger fast in April against corruption prompted lakhs of Indian to join his movement - India Against Corruption. The campaign was launched by an NGO; Mr Hazare became its face.
Under sweltering pressure to respect Mr Hazare's demands, the government agreed that the drafting committee of the Lokpal Bill would include Mr Hazare and four of his nominees. The joint committee, as it's referred to, also includes five ministers.
The team had promised that the new Lokpal Bill would be ready for review by Parliament by June 30. The monsoon session of Parliament begins in the second week of July. The final countdown has been marked by a public and vicious war of words between the ministers and the activists on the committee.
The activists insist that for the Lokpal Bill to be effective, it must cover the Prime Minister and senior judges. The government disagrees. Activists say they want a Lokpal with officers working under it at district level, who would have powers to deal with cases at the local level.
Activist Prashant Bhushan who is a member of the drafting committee elaborated on a key area of divergence today. "The government sees the Lokpal (Ombudsman) as an 11-member body with no effective machinery, no investigative machinery working under it ...and this 11 -member body will take all the decisions on behalf of the Lokpal. They see it only as a body to deal with high-level corruption where these 11 members will decide on these issues. But the Bill we have envisaged will have this 11-member Lokpal at the top which will supervise and administer a full investigative and vigilance machinery which will deal with investigation of corruption at all levels...among all public servants. It will be a completely independent body."