The civil society on Thursday heaved a collective sigh of relief as the televised indefinite fast by social activist Anna Hazare for the introduction of a particular version of anti-corruption legislation seemed close to an end.
While the Aruna Roy-led NCPRI (which had come down heavily on the stubbornness of Hazare supporters and their insistence that only their version of the Bill must be passed) was happy. Parliament would at least introduce and discuss their version of the Lok Pal Bill, members said the best news was the imminent end of Hazare’s fast. Hazare has been fasting since August 16 demanding a stronger anti-graft legislation.
The government has already introduced its version of the Bill in Parliament, which Hazare’s team considers too weak. Said Nikhil Dey, a member of NCPRI, said: “I feel so relieved.”
The activist pointed out the divergence in tactics between NCPRI and Hazare supporters. As the Prime Minister announced in Parliament, all the Lok Pal-related proposals made by civil society groups like India Against Corruption and also NCPRI would now be discussed by Parliament. This was an achievement which NCPRI and its member Aruna Roy achieved without any struggle.
“We had already placed our views in the Standing Committee. So had IAC. Where was the need for the struggle?” asks Venkatesh Nayak, another activist and an NCPRI member.
Both civil society versions were already before the Standing Committee of Parliament whose chairman Abhishek Manu Singhvi had recently assured that the government version of the Bill could be altered after incorporating views of the civil society members.
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“We have differences with both the government Bill on Lok Pal as well as the Jan Lok Pal Bill drafted by Anna Hazare’s team,” says Nayak. “We would have argued our point and ensured amendments in the government Bill at the stage of the Standing Committee anyway.”
“We hope there can be proper discussions and the best things are incorporated,” said Dey. Nayak said the indefinite fast by Anna Hazare was totally unnecessary. “They held the country to ransom for nothing. What did they achieve that they did not have before?” he asked.
“If something had happened to Hazare there would have been violence of the scale seen in Gujarat. No one could have stopped that,” he said.
He said the government had gone as far as possible though it had been quite stubborn in refusing to withdraw the Bill. “If the Bill had been withdrawn, one could have said that Anna’s team had achieved something,” he said.
“The numbers that gathered in Ramlila Maidan were totally uninformed and the youth were talking of the Lok Pal Bill as if it was the latest movie in town. Such was their awareness. Where were they all these years when so many movements were happening?” he said.
He said the activists who joined hands in the movement had an axe to grind too.
Naik even pointed out glaring legal contradictions in the Jan Lok Pal Bill. “And yet you find a criminal lawyer like Ram Jehthmalani supporting it.”
K S Gopal, an activist in Andhra Pradesh and former member of the Employment Guarantee Council formed under NREGA, said the purpose for which the fast was undertaken would remain incomplete if it ended so soon and without a little more drama.
“The group supporting Hazare may now prolong the fast and wait for police action to capitalise on the situation as they have not achieved much out of the agitation. I don’t think an agreement on corruption was what they wanted,” says Gopal.