Hazare and team can't hijack draft, signals govt

First round of dialogue on Lok Pal Bill begins; drafting committee will meet again on May 2.

In the first meeting of the Lok Pal Bill drafting committee, the Union Progressive Alliance (UPA) managers made it clear that Anna Hazare-led civil society representatives won’t be allowed to monopolise the civil society space. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, chairman of the drafting committee, told the non-government representatives that “other similar groups have also submitted their draft legislations to the government. We have to examine all such drafts.”

At one point of time, Mukherjee also told Hazare “if required, other representatives will be called to attend the meeting of this drafting committee”.

Overall, the first meeting of the committee, comprising equal number of ministers and civil society representatives, went off well. According to sources, RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal was seen as a little impatient and thrice asked Mukherjee to give the government’s opinion on the draft submitted by the Hazare’s group. But the ministers remained non-committal.

The next meeting of the committee has been convened on May 2.

While Mukherjee was the main speaker from the government side, Hazare led the civil society group during the deliberations. As Hazare spoke mainly on the transparency required in the system, he also told at least five times during the meeting that he doesn’t think the Lok Pal bill can root out corruption totally but it will be “controlled to a large extent”.

Soon after the meeting ended, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal informed that the civil society members gave the latest version of the bill and amiable discussions were held from both sides. Sibal also said the proceedings of the meeting would be audio recorded and all important decisions would be made public. The civil society members, Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan, Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi, had demanded that the proceedings be video recorded. However, the government had rejected Hazare’s proposal to record the meeting earlier.

According to sources, two copies of the audio tapes were made on Saturday and one of them will be sent to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).

The first meeting which took place eight days after Anna Hazare ended his hunger strike, lasted for 90 minutes. In the meeting, Hazare reminded the ministers that out of each rupee targeted for development, only 10 paisa reaches the population at the base. He pointed out bills like this would enable a bigger share of the government’s money to reach its target.

The ministers, on the other hand, explained the civil society group on how the proposed legislation will go through various stages before it becomes an act and emphasising that even if the cabinet approves the draft of the civil society, “it won’t become an act unless the Parliament passes it.”

“There is a need to have a political consensus on the bill,” government representatives said in the meeting.

“We have circulated the draft bill made by the standing committee and discussions on the way forward will take place in the next meeting. Till then both sides will look at the draft bill and come up with suggestions. We have decided to brief the media on decisions taken periodically and tell how things are moving forward,” Union HRD and Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said after the meeting.

Representing the civil rights organisations, senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who was also present in the meeting, said the committee will go for public consultations and both sides have agreed for a strong and independent Lok Pal Bill. “There would be certain changes made in the draft bill and it would be made available on the website,” said Prashant Bhushan.

Bhushan also said the fundamental principles will be decided in the next meeting and after that there would be meetings every week, may be more than one day if required, to complete the work.