New Delhi:
Leaders from different political parties are meeting at the Prime Minister's residence to finalise the details of the Lokpal Bill. There is much riding on this session - India is waiting for a potent law that will combat corruption; 74-year-old activist Anna Hazare is waiting to announce a hunger strike, his fourth this year, if politicians deliver a law that does not meet his standards.
Here are the Prime Minister's opening remarks at the all-party meeting:
Thank you all for coming here today. I have invited you to this meeting to seek your guidance and views on the important matter of the Lokpal Bill. You will recall that a full discussion had been held in Parliament before the draft Lokpal Bill had been referred to the Standing Committee. Based on that discussion, Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee had made a statement on the same day in both the Houses of Parliament about the sense of the two Houses. In my letter of 27 August, 2011 to Shri Anna Hazare in which I had requested him to end his fast, I had said that the Parliament had agreed in principle on three matters. These were the Citizen's Charter, the inclusion of lower bureaucracy under the Lokpal through an appropriate mechanism and the establishment of Lokayukta in the States. The sense of the Houses and the records of discussions in Parliament had then been conveyed to the Standing Committee for their guidance.
The Standing Committee has now completed its deliberations. The Committee has done very valuable work in record time and I thank Shri Abhishek Singhvi and his colleagues for the efforts they have put in. All of you would have seen the recommendations of the Standing Committee on the various issues and also the corresponding provisions of the draft Bill tabled by the Government earlier.
It is for this august group to indicate how far the recommendations of the Standing Committee meet the sense of the Parliament and how far the various provisions are feasible and efficacious. The Government is committed to implement in letter and spirit a good and effective Lokpal Bill that would have a quick and positive impact in further curbing the cancer of corruption without any adverse effects on the efficiency of our system of public administration. I am personally keen that this momentous legislation should be passed on the basis of consensus among all parties as far as possible and that this should not be subjected to party politics in any way. This is an occasion where we must keep the interests of the country foremost in our minds. The Government is also keen that we must make all efforts to pass a Lokpal Bill in this very session that is based on consensus and that is driven by Parliament as the custodian of legislation. Your guidance and cooperation in this matter are of paramount importance.