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 the divergence of opinions before giving a final shape to the Bill and presenting it to the Cabinet. It was decided to skip the June 30 deadline for submission of the draft to the government. The government, however, stressed that the Bill would be placed in Parliament during the coming monsoon session.
At the eighth and penultimate round of talks, the members made it a point to stress the cordiality during the proceedings, unlike in the past, the fruitfulness of the talks and the progress made. They apparently wanted to part amicably on the concluding day of the meeting on Tuesday, whether or not they bridged the gap on the six contentious issues.
There will be no meetings after Tuesday, when both sides will exchange their drafts and submit their comments. Further exchange of views will be made through e-mails, and a common draft will be presented along with the divergence of opinions on various issues.
Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal, who is also a member on the committee, said the proceedings were non-acrimonious, friendly, a major step forward and a breakthrough, on the basis of the broad range of agreement between the two sides.
The differences would be spelt out, and the areas of divergences and alternatives would be presented for being resolved through the political process to be initiated in July. On the basis of the outcome of the all-party meeting, the draft Bill would be presented to the Cabinet.
Anna Hazare, too, described the proceedings as good and said they were conducted in a cordial atmosphere. But he left it to Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan to talk to the media. Both Mr. Kejriwal and Mr. Bhushan, too, said consensus was evolved on some issues, and the meeting was “almost good.” But they did not totally agree with Mr. Sibal's statement that there was an agreement on 80 to 85 per cent of the points raised. Consensus had been evolved on 11 issues, while another 15 to 20 issues were discussed, they said. Thus, consensus was to the extent of 60 to 70 per cent, but the areas were not serious in implication.
The contentious issues remained. As a matter of fact, only one of the thorny issues, relating to the structure of the Lokpal, figured at Monday's meeting. Other issues such as inclusion of office of the Prime Minister, the judiciary and the conduct of MPs in Parliament under the ambit of the Lokpal did not come up for discussion at all.
Keywords: India against Corruption, draft lokpal bill, civil society members, joint committee, all-party meet, monsoon session
If a fair and firm Lok Pal Bill is not passed by Govt and Political parties then Indian Public should boycott filling tax returns, paying taxes and elections - Indians! we have to fight the second freedom fight against our own elected MPs which is going to be worst than Gnadhiji's fight against British Colonial rule. We have a Corrupt Govt and oppostion. They feel we have no other option but to elect either one with same motive to squeeze the common man.
Under the present scenario the actual step should be to dismantle Official Secrets Act. We see all middlemen know details of any steps while the common public is told that the matter is secret.It is true for all matters including matters related to security and intelligence.The people in security establishments take employments with these middlemen for trading after retirements.So the OSA is only a tool to promote corruption
What about false cases instituted by investigating agencies? What about judicial delays and of hearings on flimsy grounds? What about prosecution failing to produce winesses delibrately? What about injustice resulting from shoddy investigation and non application of mind?
@Srinath, your understanding poor on the matter. Whether the existing law is modified or a new law introduced after scrapping the existing one, it does not matter. The point of Lokpal is to have a body to investigate into decisions & allegations and prosecute in case of corrupt actions. The current problem is, there is no authority that can actually take up a case without any complains. I agree that the corruption charges should be made as guilty unless proven otherwise. So let the accuse prove that they are not guilty.
Why can they not simply amend the Prevention of Corruption Act and the IPC and do away with prior sanction for prosecution; make corruption accused guilty till proved i.e. onus of proving his guilt is not on the prosecution (just like in dowry case) and enhance the punishment? We have enough laws but poor implementation. Regarding judiciary a new bill may be drafted in consultation with the apex court.
At last something constructive. i hope all parties will discuss the bill in light of constitution and open mindedness.
I have a question...Lokpal bill is a step to eradicate corruption at larger level but how is it going to help at low levels?? Like a traffic police taking money instead of fining and person who paid the money for that. So how this will be handled?
It is a matter of great pleasure to adopt a democratic process to resolve differences at all party meeting.
"The proceedings were non-acrimonious, friendly, a major step forward and a breakthrough, on the basis of the broad range of agreement between the two sides." Does this indicate the spirit of "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."? The sinking feeling is the most agreements 60 to70% or 80 to 85% were on peripheral issues and most important major issues are still contentious.
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