Team Anna will take a final decision on his indefinite fast starting August 16 after seeing the Lok Pal Bill draft approved by the Cabinet.
According to Anna Hazare’s spokesperson Vibhav Kumar what will matter now is the Bill that the Cabinet approves. “If it does not match the characteristics that we had proposed then the fast is certain,” he said. However, the civil society members are already preparing for the fast.
“We have no hope of the government accepting any of the features in the Lok Pal Bill we drafted. Our preparations are in full swing for the fast,” says Kumar. The team has activated its sms campaign and its meetings with various segments of society for support.
“We are meeting resident welfare associations, youths and padyatras are being planned from Meerut, Patna, Lucknow and Balia, which would converge in the Capital on August 16,” sources said.
While the Anna team has started its countdown for the fast, the response of the government after the all-party meeting on the Lok Pal Bill underlines its unwillingness to indulge them any further.
The statement of Home Minister P Chidambaram on the all-party meeting released today, indicated a general agreement among all politcal parties on the primacy of parliamentary procedures and the role of political parties to pilot an approved legislation.
The statement made to the Group of Ministers yesterday reads: “The meeting adopted unanimously a one-sentence resolution which read that the government would bring a Bill in Parliament in accordance with established procedures. All parties which participated in the meeting, emphasised the primacy of Parliamentary procedures, and the primacy of the role of political parties to pilot an approved legislation.”
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“We will therefore, bring a bill in the monsoon session of Parliament. That bill will be examined in accordance with established procedure. While the government will make every effort to pass the bill at the earliest, you will appreciate that it will depend on the Members of Parliament and the desire to follow established procedures. In the all party meeting where 31 speakers represented different parties, the parties also agreed on the fact that the Lok Pal Bill that would be made should be within the constitution.”
The Opposition had also sought a single Cabinet-approved draft from the Congress as a starting point for their expression of views on the different aspects of the Bill.
According to Chidambaram, the Opposition has refused to comment on the Bill's specific features until they see the Cabinet-approved Bill. He said: “A perfectly legitimate and correct position to take.”
He said that though some parties gave preliminary views on the matter of inclusion of the Prime Minister's Office or judiciary under the purview of the Lok Pal, his impression was that “all these views are subject to change as we go through the established procedure. Only when they see the final, Cabinet-approved draft of the bill, will they be able to take their final position”.
The Opposition was angry with a double draft at the all party meeting, according to sources. They refused to comment after seeing the two drafts. Anti-corruption group members said they were also in favour of a single draft.
“We are not insisting that the government should agree to everything. But it should have valid reasons for not agreeing to these points raised by us,” said Manish Sisodia, a civil society member.