Symbolically, that is; almost all decline to spell out most specifics, saying they’d do it in Parliament; however, all promise a strong body.
The first time Anna Hazare sat on a fast at Jantar Mantar in April this year, politicians were not allowed to share the dais with him. Some were booed away by the mob gathered at the venue.
On Sunday, the reverse was true as he sat on a day's fast at the same venue to gather political support for legislation on a strong and independent ombudsman, the Lok Pal. Not only did top political leaders sit on the dais with him and give their views on what a strong Lok Pal means to them but the ‘natural adversaries’, the Left parties and the Bharatiya Janata Party, spoke in near-symphony. The ruling party kept away, spurning an invitation to join. It was the second occasion in recent memory when the opposition united against the government, the first being the issue of foreign investment in the retail sector.
However, the political class made it a point not to be ambushed into giving their stand on every detail in the Lok Pal Bill, despite the requests of Anna's chief commander, Arvind Kejriwal. Both D Raja and A B Bardhan of the CPI and Arun Jaitley, the BJP’s leader of the opposition in Parliament, chose not to entertain his requests, saying almost curtly that they would make their views known in Parliament and not go into details now. Jaitley simply said the opposition would oppose the Government if the latter came with a weak Lok Pal Bill.
Hazare, later addressing the party leaders and the large crowd, said: “We have been strengthened further by the support of all the parties. If the government hesitates in bringing a strong Lok Pal Bill and if you (parties) find yourself less in numbers to oppose it, then we will together come out on the streets and we will together ensure that every jail overflows with our supporters. All parties will together fight for a strong Lok Pal Bill.''
Cong, govt
The Congress party dismissed the coming together. General secretary Digvijay Singh told reporters laws are not made on the streets and, hence, the party chose not to take part. The government has called an all-party meeting on Wednesday and a meeting of all allies of the ruling UPA coalition tomorrow to discuss the Bill, before coming out with a final draft after taking into account the recommendations of Parliament’s standing committee.
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The debate held on Sunday found the BJP, the Left, SP and JD(U) agreeing on the need to pass a Lok Pal Bill in the ongoing session of Parliament. Sharad Yadav of the NDA said if Parliament could not pass the Bill in time, a special session should be convened to do so.
While almost all the speakers were on the same page on most issues raised by Hazare, namely inclusion of the Prime Minister, Central Bureau of Investigation and lower bureaucracy under the Lok Pal, party leaders refused to go into details on the selection process for the Lok Pal, saying these were details that should be left for Parliament to decide.
Advice
CPI general secretary Bardhan also advised Hazare and his team against branding as "corrupt" those who disagreed with them, asking the activists to "listen to others".
As mentioned, most of the leaders concurred with Hazare's demands for inclusion of the Prime Minister, lower bureaucracy and the CBI's anti-corruption wing under Lok Pal but they did not favour bringing the higher judiciary under the ombudsman. They argued for a separate mechanism to check corruption in it.
Bardhan added, "Team Anna should not expect that each and every point it makes is accepted. They should show some flexibility. They should not think that the entire wisdom of the world is with nine-10 people. There is no dearth of scholars in a country of 120 crore. Team Anna should also listen to others and have patience to listen to others," he said.
D Raja said the Bill would perpetrate a greater corruption if it did not represent the Dalits, Adivasis and women and other marginalised communities in it. It would then be a form of social or political corruption, he said.
On the CBI, Jaitley said its investigative powers should come under the Lok Pal as far as corruption cases were concerned. He also underlined the need to include the Prime Minister in the ombudsman ambit. If ministers are under the Lok Pal, how can the Prime Minister, who heads many ministries, be outside it, asked Bardhan.
Brinda Karat of the CPM was the only person who responded to the request of Kejriwal for comments on the selection process. She said her party was for a fair selection procedure. If it was hijacked by the government, the Lok Pal would be rendered meaningless, she said. The selection procedure should be without representatives of any business house, she added.
Differing voices on tribune
Pinaki Mishra, MP from the Biju Janata Dal, on Sunday gave a new version on the change of mind by Parliament’s standing committee on the selection of CBI director and inclusion of the lower bureaucracy in the Lok Pal’s ambit.
He said when the committee met on November 30, the members were told there was near-consensus on the demand for an independent selection mechanism for the CBI head.
However, the next day, members were called for another meeting, where they were told there had been a rethink and the existing procedure would be retained. The same reversal of decision happened on inclusion of Group C employees, says Mishra.
He, however, felt the standing committee proposal to make the CBI accountable to a separate directorate of prosecution, bringing it outside the control of the ministry of law, was a step forward.
Arvind Kejriwal said the CBI director should be selected not by a panel of the Central Vigilance Commis-sioner and the home and personnel secretaries as done now but by all 11 members of the proposed Lok Pal . It should become the latter’s investigative wing.
He said the Standing Committee recommendations suggest the CBI should route its corruption cases through the Lok Pal and then proceed to investigate these. That would reduce the ombudsman’s role to a post office for CBI cases.
He also called for emulating the Uttarakhand model for decentralisation of grievance redressal and for a citizens’ charter, by having judicial officers appointed at the block level to settle cases and provide compensation to aggrieved persons locally. Not one case should come to Delhi to the Lok Pal, he said.