Marked by distrust and, on the government's part an element of coercion as well, the civil society-UPA exercise to jointly draft a Lokpal bill formally ended in failure on Tuesday with the two sides exchanging conflicting drafts. The government is unable to accept civil society's version of an anti-corruption authority with sweeping jurisdiction over the Prime Minister's Office, top judiciary and actions of MPs in Parliament along with merging entities like...
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Lokpal Bill panel to resolve differences at all-party meet by K Balchand
Both sides are reluctant to budge on contentious issues Reluctant to budge from their views, the government representatives and civil society members of the Joint Drafting Committee on the Lokpal Bill decided on Monday to leave the differences to be resolved at the next stage of wider consultations with political parties. The government has decided to call an all-party meeting in July to elicit their opinion on the draft Bill and...
More »Anna gets piece of Sonia’s mind
-The Telegraph Sonia Gandhi today sent a terse reply to Anna Hazare’s complaints about a “conspiracy” to defame him, the response setting the tone before a last-ditch bid to resolve differences on the Lokpal bill. The Congress chief’s reply to a letter from the Gandhian came a day ahead of a scheduled meeting of the joint committee of government representatives and social activists set up to draft the proposed anti-corruption law. Sonia’s...
More »A Lokpal Of Gloom by Saikat Datta and Anuradha Raman
Seven meetings and a stalemate. What now for the Lokpal Bill? It’s War Out There Seven meetings on, government and civil society reps drafting the Lokpal bill are split on four key issues Ambit * Civil society: PM and Supreme and High Court judges should be brought under Lokpal’s purview * Government: This is constitutionally untenable; PM should get immunity or should be investigated with adequate safeguards Scope * Civil society: MPs can...
More »‘At the first meeting, Shanti Bhushan said something about how we are here, writing the Constitution afresh’ by Ravish Tiwari
Team Hazare has been very critical of the responses of the government representatives in the drafting committee. They even said the Lokpal had become a Jokepal. During the discussions, we did not want to do anything that would upset the applecart. We did not go to the media, except for Kapil Sibal who held a daily briefing. The Hazare team did not want a joint briefing. We agreed. We did a...
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