As expected, the government and the team led by Anna Hazare have disagreed on vital points. The question of including the prime minister within the ambit of the lokpal is being falsely blown out of proportion by government apologists.         Though the head of the government, the prime minister is only the first among equals. In a democracy, a political vacuum does not arise if the PM finds himself under...

Congress expected to endorse government's stand on excluding PM from ambit of Bill Some party leaders prefer to include PM, given the strong public sentiment against corruption Government's original draft included Prime Minister Ahead of an all-party meeting on July 3 to debate the controversial Lokpal Bill, the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's apex body, will meet on Friday to discuss what is euphemistically being described as the “the current political situation.”...

Only one contentious issue came up for discussion at Monday's meeting between the government representatives and civil society members of the Joint Drafting Committee on the Lokpal Bill. It was the selection and removal of Lokpal members. The two sides differed on both counts. The government preferred a committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Lok Sabha Speaker, the leaders of both Houses, Leaders of the Opposition of both Houses, the Home...

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...

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...