As civil society members led by him reached out to political parties and met senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani, Anna Hazare on Friday rejected Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal's criticism that he was seeking to create a “parallel government” through Jan Lokpal bill without accountability and flouting the basic structure of the Constitution.
Having kept political leaders at arm's length during the stir over a strong anti-corruption watchdog, Mr. Hazare said the civil society would elicit views of all parties on the drafts prepared by them and the government representatives and discuss how to stamp out corruption.
“We will ask them [political parties] to study the two drafts and let us know if they find anything that is against Constitution in our draft. We would like to know if our draft is an attempt at forming a parallel government,” Mr. Hazare told PTI over the phone.
“We will meet them and tell them to decide after reading the draft, so that no one says that they were not shown the draft. Civil society members, including myself, will meet chiefs and leaders of various parties and will also tour some States. I am at my village for a couple of days in connection with court work,” he said.
Mr. Hazare maintained that he was always open to discussions to remove the hurdles in the draft bill.
