New Delhi:
In private talks with Anna Hazare's team of activists, the government has reportedly suggested that it may agree to the Prime Minister being covered, though with riders, by the Lokpal Bill. The negotiations over who the Lokpal, a new ombudsman agency, should cover take place as Team Anna's deadline minces closer - it has warned of massive protests, a hunger strike by 74-year-old Anna, and a campaign against the Congress in five states headed to elections. To prevent this, the government has to deliver a Lokpal Bill that Anna finds acceptable before this Parliament session concludes on December 21.
Team Anna - which has campaigned for its Jan Lokpal bill - had objected furiously to attempts to grant immunity to the PM and exclude Group C and D central government servants - the bureaucrats who interact most frequently with the common man for services like getting a driver's license, a ration card, or a passport. The government has said that while it objects to a parallel administration being created to tackle these bureaucrats - nearly 60 lakh - it will find a way to eventually make them answerable to the nine-member Lokpal.
On the matter of the Prime Minister, the government may agree to Team Anna's demands, but with riders designed to prevent the PM from being held accountable for a decision taken by a cabinet minister, for example. Sources say that this offer will be made formally in Parliament, possibly by Dr Manmohan Singh, who was over-ruled by his cabinet earlier this year when he said he has no objection to being covered by the Lokpal.
So the biggest unresolved difference between the government and Team Anna is now centred on the CBI. The activists want the CBI to report to the nine-member Lokpal. The government has been arguing against this on the grounds that it would compromise the investigating agency's autonomy.
As the government engages with Team Anna, a parliamentary committee of 30 MPs is prepping its recommendations on the Lokpal Bill - the report will be presented in Parliament on Friday. It is this report that will provide the starting points for compromise, allowing the government to then offer further concessions. For example, the report leaves it upto the House to decide on the PM's inclusion in the Lokpal Bill. The government will bend to accommodate the Prime Minister's office, with riders, thereby taking credit for the move.
The committee, headed by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi, agrees with the government's view that it will be an administrative nightmare if every complaint against lakhs of public servants is examined by the proposed nine-member Lokpal. So the draft report of the 30-member committee proposes that for now, the nearly 60 lakh Group C and D central government employees be handled by the existing autonomous anti-corruption body, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). The report also suggests that after the Lokpal stabilizes, the inclusion of the 57 lakh-strong Group C can be revisited. And for now, in states, similar employees will report to the Lokayukta or ombudsman of the state.
The other sticking point has been who the CBI will report to. Team Anna says the investigating agency must be answerable to the Lokpal to grant authority and independence to the investigations that the ombudsman will need to conduct; the government says the CBI will be brought under the "general supervision" of the Lokpal. The draft report leaves it fairly ambiguous with one clause suggesting that the investigation agency will not be under the ambit of Lokpal; and another provision saying the CBI must get its final reports approved by the Lokpal panel.
The standing committee's draft was scheduled to be presented in Parliament tomorrow, but that has been pushed by a couple of days to Friday.
Mr Singhvi denied there was any delay in submitting it, explaining that the extension is needed for procedural matters like translation, printing and publishing. Mr Singhvi is said to have sought an extension of four to five days, which would have meant that the presentation of the Bill would have been pushed to next week. But the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Vice President Hamid Ansari, was reportedly concerned that this would make it impossible for the Lokpal Bill to be tabled and passed in this session. So he is believed to have insisted that it be presented by Friday, December 9.