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Talks follow PM’s request to Anna

-The Telegraph

 

Anna Hazare’s dipping health indicators pushed the government and his team into formal talks on the Lokpal impasse tonight.

There was no breakthrough at the end of the two-and-a-half-hour dialogue but neither side suggested a breakdown either.

Senior ministers and Congress leaders gathered at the Prime Minister’s house late tonight and the meeting stretched till 2am in two phases. Sources said several issues had been more or less sorted out and the government would explore at an all-party meeting tomorrow the possibility of extending the monsoon session to get the bill passed.

Earlier in the night, the government and Team Anna had spoken of “positive and constructive” talks and agreed to meet again.

On the government side, Pranab Mukherjee, appointed negotiator on long-distance instructions from ailing UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi who is likely to return home from the US in a week or so, was assisted in the talks by law minister Salman Khurshid and party MP Sandeep Dikshit. On Team Anna were Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and Kiran Bedi.

Mukherjee said the talks will continue and they hoped to find a way out. Khurshid added: “The talks were positive and constructive, I am hopeful we can find common ground.”

Kejriwal said: “The government has sought time till tomorrow to spell out its stand on points raised by us. Talks were held in a good atmosphere but there are no commitments yet.”

Sources said Team Anna insisted that the government’s bill be scrapped and a new one be placed before Parliament’s current session with a commitment that it would be passed in this session.

Kejriwal said the government had appealed strongly that Anna end his fast. But Bedi said: “Knowing Anna, he will not agree to end his fast without a written undertaking on his demands.”

A frail but unbending Hazare spurned medical attention, announcing to cheers at Ramlila Maidan that his “conscience did not permit” any invasive intake his doctors advised. A medical team advised that he be hospitalised but Hazare said no. A little later, he also refused a saline drip.

“If my health fails me and they (the doctors) come to take me away, please block their way and don’t let me be taken away,” Hazare announced to the crowds before retreating to his tent backstage.

Neither the Prime Minister’s appeal that Hazare call off his fast, nor his “personal guarantee” that the government will work for a strong and effective Lokpal appeared to have cut any ice so far.

Hazare was insistent, sources said, on a written guarantee that the Jan Lokpal bill would, at the very least, be tabled by the government in this session, rather than be sent to the standing committee, as the Prime Minister had offered in his open letter to Hazare.

While Team Anna spokespersons said the standing committee offer meant little, the government cited constitutional and parliamentary procedures to contend that another bill on the same subject could not be introduced in Parliament.

Prime Minister Singh’s letter to Hazare said: “In view of my deep and abiding concern for your health, our government is prepared to request the Speaker, Lok Sabha, to formally refer the Jan Lokpal bill also to the standing committee for their holistic consideration along with everything else. Furthermore, if you have any anxieties about time and speed, the government can formally request the standing committee to try… and fast-track their deliberations to the extent reasonably feasible.”

Striking a conciliatory note, the Prime Minister wrote: “I have maintained that your and our object is identical viz. to reduce significantly, if not eliminate, the scourge of corruption from this country. At worst, our paths and methodologies may differ, though I do believe that even those differences have been exaggerated.”

However, the critical portion of the Prime Minister’s appeal — and this is where the problem with introducing a new Lokpal bill will lie — was his insistence on parliamentary procedure. “The government is committed to passing a constitutionally valid and the best possible Lokpal legislation with inputs from civil society with the broadest possible consensus. We are ready to talk to anybody. However, we will have to keep in mind parliamentary supremacy and constitutional obligations in matters of legislation. As a government, we respect and are responsible to the will of the Indian people as represented by Parliament,” the Prime Minister said.

The government, which was reluctant till yesterday to initiate any formal dialogue with the Hazare group, altered its stand as tangible indications came through informal mediators that there was readiness to explore a meeting ground.

Congress leaders admitted that the Hazare group mellowed only after an assurance was given that the government was willing to revisit the question of inclusion of the Prime Minister under the ambit of the Lokpal, although with strong conditions attached. There was a feeling in the government that leaving a Prime Minister to fight legal cases after his retirement, when he will have no legal assistance and vital documents, would be worse than including the serving Prime Minister.

Sources said informal negotiators had conveyed to the government that the Hazare group was willing to talk with a senior representative of the Prime Minister other than P. Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal.

A roadmap was prepared when Kejriwal met law minister Salman Khurshid at the residence of Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit this afternoon.

Singh discussed the contents of the letter with Pranab Mukherjee, A.K. Antony and standing committee chairperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi. In the evening, Rahul Gandhi, too, held an hour-long meeting with the Prime Minister at his office in Parliament.