New Delhi:
After a brief bout of illness, anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare is back in action. The 74-year-old will be on a day-long fast today at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi as he resumes his campaign for the passage of the Lokpal Bill in the ongoing session of the Parliament. The contentious bill had made its way through the Lok Sabha but faltered in the Rajya Sabha in the Winter Session of Parliament last year amidst much chaos and controversy.
"We've learnt that the PM's meeting has failed to evolve consensus. On March 25, we'll protest at Jantar Mantar. We will tell the people that the government is not serious about the Lokpal Bill, about fighting corruption. The bill in its present form will not be an effective tool against corruption," Mr Hazare had said in Delhi after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's all-party meet failed to evolve a consensus on the controversial bill on Friday.
The veteran activist set out from Noida in the morning and headed to the Gandhi Samadhi at Rajghat from where he will eventually head to Jantar Mantar - the site which has now become synonymous with the septuagenarian's fight against corruption. Mr Hazare had, in August last year, held an epic 12-day fast at this very place in his fight for the Lokpal Bill - an event that galvanised almost an entire nation, forcing the government to accede to three key demands that he wanted incorporated in the then proposed anti-graft legislation. The Lokpal Bill intends to create an ombudsman tasked to check cases of corruption among government servants. It has been mired in controversy over a strong and public disagreement between the government and Mr Hazare and his group of activists over key tenets of the legislation. An effort to iron out the differences in the form of a drafting committee - comprising 10 members with five drawn from the government as well as the civil society - also failed miserably with the rift within the two parties widening with a very public, and at times, nasty verbal duel. Some of the main sticking points that have thus far left Team Anna dissatisfied with the government's version of the Lokpal Bill include bringing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under the Lokpal's ambit and selection of the members comprising the ombudsman.
Aside of the obvious focus on the Lokpal Bill, one of the other highlight at today's fast would be the presence of at least 20 families of whistleblowers' who would be relating their experiences in their fight against corruption. Mr Hazare today slammed the government for turning a blind eye to whistleblowers who are being targeted while fighting corruption. "25 people are dead, but this government has gone dumb and deaf. It is not listening to the cries of people," he said. Several people, who have tried to blow the lid of corruption in the country, have been killed, the latest being IPS officer Narendra Kumar who was murdered on March 8 allegedly by the mining mafia in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh. India now has a Whistle-blowers' Protection Bill in place that seeks to set up a regular mechanism to encourage persons to disclose information on corruption or willful misuse of power by public servants, including ministers, by providing them adequate protection. This bill was passed by the Lok Sabha last year amidst the debate and vote on the Lokpal Bill.
Ahead of the fast, Manish Sisodia, one of Mr Hazare's key aides who comprise what is known as Team Anna, said that they never expected anything from the Prime Minister's all-party meeting and expressed doubts over the government's intention to make the Lokpal Bill a reality. "Although that was the PM's last chance to prove himself, but we still didn't expect anything because no party wants a strong Lokpal," he said," he said.
Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, BSP's S C Mishra, RJD's Ram Kripal Yadav, SP's Ram Gopal Yadav, NCP'S Tariq Anwar and CPI's A B Bardhan had met at the Prime Minister's residence to discuss the controversial bill but failed to arrive at any sort of agreement. Something that Mr Jaitley, after the meeting, aptly put by saying, "the only consensus was on the lack of consensus."
Parties led by the BJP had attacked UPA government alleging that that latter, which is in a minority in the Rajya Sabha, had deliberately orchestrated chaos to avoid putting the bill to a vote last year that it would have eventually lost. 97 amendments had been moved by Opposition members in the Upper House against the bill. The BJP, joined by several other parties including some of the government's allies like the Trinamool Congress, contend that the legislation in its current form seriously violates the federal structure of polity as enshrined in the Constitution. Their argument is based upon the Lokayuktas that the ombudsman provides for to be set up in every state to tackle corruption. Parties like the BJP say this violates the autonomy of state governments. They say that the Centre should provide an enabling framework that provides the guidelines for how the ombudsman should be selected and what its powers should be. But it cannot force states to create a Lokayukta.