New Delhi/Pune:
In Parliament today, the government's version of the anti-corruption Lokpal Bill was tabled amid some noisy protests from the BJP benches. In Pune, Gandhian Anna Hazare and his team of activists burnt a copy of the Bill
Last week, the Cabinet cleared the Bill and decided that the Prime Minister will be exempt from investigation for corruption while he or she is in office. With this, the battle between the government and civil society activists led by Anna Hazare peaked.
What the Cabinet approved was based largely on the recommendations of the five ministers who were part of the drafting committee of the Bill. The other half of the committee - Anna Hazare and his four activists - had delivered a separate bill, which has been completely abandoned by the government. "This is not a Lokpal Bill, it's a Dhokapal (betrayal) Bill," said Kiran Bedi, a member of Team Anna. Mr Hazare has said he will start a hunger strike on August 16 in protest.
After a long hunger strike by Anna Hazare in April which was supported by lakhs of Indians, the government had agreed that the committee assigned to prepare the Bill would include five ministers and five non-elected representatives including Mr Hazare. But the experiment failed miserably with both sides unable to find common ground on issues like who should select the members of the Lokpal; the most critical point of difference was whether the Bill should apply to the PM, a must-have according to Team Anna.
Mr Hazare's team had urged the government to circulate its draft at the Cabinet meeting as well as in Parliament. However, the salient points of Team Anna's version were presented almost as footnotes at the meeting. Later, Anna Hazare wrote an open letter to the MPs making an appeal to them not to allow introduction of such an 'anti-poor' Lokpal Bill. In his letter to the parliamentarians, Mr Hazare said that there are many critical issues affecting poor people which have been left out in the government's Lokpal Bill, and this does not allow Parliament to debate on these critical issues.
Key issues on which government and civil society members differ:On the question of whether the PM should be brought under the Lokpal, Team Anna wants the PM covered while the government's bill says he can be prosecuted only after he demits office.
Team Anna wants the Chief Justice of India to be under the Lokpal, but the government says it will bring a separate judicial accountability bill
Team Anna says the conduct of MPs in Parliament should be brought under Lokpal, but the government says this will need constitutional amendment
Team Anna also wants the CBI and CVC merged with the Lokpal, but the government bill says Lokpal will have independent prosecution wing and judicial powers
Team Anna wants more judges, administrators, CAG and CVC in the selection panel for Lokpal but the government wants more politicians
While Team Anna wants the entire bureaucracy to be included under the Lokpal, the government wants only the higher bureaucracy