Govt reaches out to Hazare

Centre proposes joint panel on Lokpal Bill, but no consensus on chairperson

New Delhi:  As anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare’s indefinite fast continued to galvanise a spontaneous reaction across the country, a rattled government opened channels of communication with the protesters on Thursday and agreed to form a joint committee to draft an effective Lokpal Bill.

However, the talks hit a deadlock following lack of consensus on the issues of a formal notification for constituting the commitee and who would be the chairperson of the committee. Activists wanted Hazare to chair the committee but the government picked finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Earlier, the UPA government’s interlocutor Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal held two rounds of discussion with Hazare’s confidants – Swami Agnivesh and Arvind Kejriwal -- and later said the government had agreed to set up a joint committee to draft the Lokpal Bill consisting five representatives each from government and civil society.

However, he conceded that deadlock persisted on two key issues.
“We had two rounds of discussions. We have agreed on almost all issues but there is no agreement on two issues, that is issuing an official notification to form the committee and making Hazare the chairman of the committee”, Sibal told journalists after the meetings. He added: “We need more time and we will meet again tomorrow (Friday) and see (if) we can evolve a procedure with which we can move ahead”. Even as his admirers and followers have been pressing that he should head the committee, Hazare said he would not like to head the committee.

“If you want, I can be a member or adviser, but not the chairperson,” Hazare said. Earlier Kejriwal said that Hazare was of the view that a retired judge should be the chairman of the committee as the government suggested that Pranab Mukherjee head the panel.
Despite the start of the dialogue between the protesters and the government, Hazare continued his fast for the third successive day on Thursday saying he would not end it until all his demands were met. The day saw Congress president Sonia Gandhi making an appeal to him to call off his fast even as a cross-section of society including school children joined his agitation not just in Delhi but across the country.

Govt cagey

The government is cagey over the two points of notification and the panel chairman. “Both are unprecedented”, Union law minister M Veerappa Moily told Deccan Herald. The government is of the opinion that if it agrees now for notification, it will open a pandora’s box for such demands in future, sources added.

It also does not want to give up on the post of the chairman. The talks will continue on Friday morning.

“Talks are on, we want resolution of all issues. We were never against dialogue as we had demonstrated in the past regarding other issues such as Right to Information”, Moily added.

Informed sources said Sibal assured the representatives of the protesters that the government would definitely be introducing the Lokpal Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament. “The government has agreed to most of our demands. But our two demands are yet to be met,” Agnivesh said.

The decision to open a negotiation channel with activists came after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh broached the subject at the cabinet meeting Friday evening. It was immediately followed by Sibal's meeting with the activists.