New Delhi:
Leaders from different political parties met at the Prime Minister's residence to finalise the details of the Lokpal Bill. There is much riding on this session - India is hoping 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 the law passed by Parliament that does not meet his standards.
After the meeting, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Ram Vilas Paswan said that majority including NDA allies had the view that the Lokpal Bill shouldn't be rushed through.
Referring to the Lokpal Bill as "momentous legislation," Dr Manmohan Singh began the meeting by stressing that he is keen for the bill to "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."
(Read: PM's opening remarks)In the last 48 hours, many features of the bill that had earlier pitted the government against other parties have been resolved, some of them after the Prime Minister phoned an array of political leaders. For example, all parties have agreed that the Lokpal - a new ombudsman agency - should be able to investigate the PM on charges of corruption, with safeguards for national security and foreign policy matters. Junior bureaucrats will be made accountable to the Lokpal - one of Anna's non-negotiable conditions. What has to be worked out now is how much control the Lokpal will have over the CBI, which is meant to handle the investigations in cases assigned to it by the ombudsman.
Anna is in Delhi with his team of activists. He says that if the Lokpal Bill is not passed during this Parliament session, which concludes on December 21, he will start a new fast at a huge sit-in protest, possibly in Mumbai.
In August, his 12-day fast at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan whipped the country into a fervour; thousands visited the activist at his camp. Anna ended his hunger strike after a historic debate in Parliament, that ended with MPs assuring him of their commitment to his three basic principles for the Lokpal, as long as they were not found to violate the constitution. Lately, it is the CBI that has topped Anna's agenda. His team says without the CBI reporting to the Lokpal, the ombudsman will have no teeth or ability to investigate government servants.
The CBI's director, AP Singh, met with the Prime Minister earlier today. He reportedly said that the agency is willing to accept the Lokpal as its new boss, but the ombudsman must then be the only body with supervisory powers over the CBI. The CBI also wants all administrative, financial and legal powers to be vested in the agency's chief.
What the CBI does not want is a bifurcation of the agency, which has been suggested by some parties, who believe that sections of it can be placed under the Lokpal, while others remain autonomous.
Team Anna says it supports the CBI stand on need for autonomy in investigative powers, but has asked for the director to be appointed independently. Main Opposition party, the BJP, has also said that it wants to ensure a complete delinking between the CBI and the government. So it wants the director of the CBI and other senior officers to be appointed by an independent panel, not the government. And it wants total investigative freedom for the agency. The government's new proposal reportedly pitches that only the CBI's prosecution wing will be under the Lokpal's supervision, while its investigation and administration wings will be independent.
A parliamentary committee that studied the Lokpal Bill and submitted its report last week suggested that the Lokpal must conduct a preliminary inquiry into an allegation of corruption and then assign it to the CBI. The committee also wants the Lokpal to sign off on the CBI's closure reports that signal the findings of its investigation. The CBI disagrees with both, arguing that these processes will weaken its ability to conduct efficient investigations. For example, a preliminary inquiry, it says, may alert the official under suspicion to likely action by the CBI, giving him or her enough notice to destroy or conceal evidence.