Cong virtually rejects Anna's call for taping proceedings

 “Let us not (allow) form (to) take the place of substance...Please do not put conditions and pre-conditions which might obstruct basic objective...Statesmanship and maturity is required from every stakeholder,” party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters in reply to a volley of questions on the issue.

He said such conditions and preconditions could not ever be allowed which would inhibit candid discussions. “Transparency should not become artificial or hypocritical decision making without candour. Therefore balancing is important”, he insisted.

Singhvi downplayed Hazare’s demand for the resignation of Telecom (rpt) Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal for reportedly belittling significance of the Lokpal bill for the common man.
He added one should not not get into charges and counter-charges when a positive process has been set in motion. “We should not queer the pitch”, he said adding the Government had bent over backwards over the procedure.

“Our constitutional and opposition in prinicple to the procedure remains. We have accepted their demands to resolve the issue but that does not mean we will accept it in every matter, “ he said.

A senior Congress leader, who declined to be identified, expressed apprehensions that the focus would go away from the Lokpal bill if the representatives of the civil society come up with such conditions and preconditions.

The leader also said that a consensus would be difficult if these representatives remained adamant on retaining certain provisions in the Jan Lokpal bill. Their is a realisation that these representatives could walkout if their core demands are not accepted.