The Union Ministers on the Joint Draft Committee on Lokpal Bill on Monday went ahead with the scheduled meeting ignoring the boycott by all the five civil society members protesting the alleged brutal eviction of Baba Ramdev from the Ramlila Grounds while on a fast against corruption.
The UPA government representatives, however, were hopeful that civil society members would attend the next meeting now rescheduled for June 15 instead of June 10 as desired by co-chairperson Shanti Bhushan to accommodate Anna Hazare.
Union Minister for HRD Kapil Sibal told reporters that several clauses of the bills were finalised at the day's meeting but refused to divulge them saying that it had first to be shared with the other civil members of the drafting committee, whom he criticised time and again on one ground or the other during his press conference.
He denied talks had broken down due to the ‘confrontationist' course adopted by the government and referred to Mr. Bhushan's letter and his willingness to participate in further discussion. Mr. Sibal, however, regarded most of his concerns as extraneous to the issues relating to the drafting committee.
Underlining the government's commitment to complete the draft bill by June 30, Mr. Sibal sought to take refuge in the opinion received from BJP president Nitin Gadkari on the basic principles of the proposed bill and said the task would be completed irrespective of whether the civil society members attended any meeting or not.
He charged the civil society members with not being serious about drafting the bill by raising “extraneous” issues like what happened at the Ramlila grounds and seeking a public debate on the thorny issues. He said he strongly rejected the accusations levelled by Mr. Hazare that the government was a cheat, telling lies and a conspirator merely because opinions differed.
Mr. Sibal ruled out any kind of response to issues raised by Mr. Bhushan on a public debate saying that such an exercise went against the grains of the drafting committee where issues were to be settled through exchange of ideas.
Replying to a question, Mr. Sibal said in case none of the civil society members attended any further meeting, the government representatives would place their views and finalise the draft.
The government would rely on the views it had obtained from various quarters and pointed out that Mr. Gadkari had called for maintaining the supremacy of the Constitution and the prevailing system of checks and balances and that he was against undermining any democratic institution. The BJP chief also spoke out against according supremacy to a few civil society members in drafting the bill.
The Bahujan Samaj Party told the committee that its action of seeking opinion was not consistent with parliamentary practice. The Congress had not sent any response but Mr. Sibal said being ministers they would put forward their views and the government would take a decision and if necessary the Congress might react later.
He refused to take questions on the ‘isolation' of the Congress with the joining of hands of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev and the ‘lack of trust' between the two sides that civil society members had sought to highlight.
Earlier, JDC co-chairperson Shanti Bhushan in a letter to JDC chairman and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee conveyed the boycott of the civil society members of Monday's meeting, following the ‘brutal manner' in which the government ‘sought to crush the people from raising their voice against corruption.'
He demanded that the next meeting be rescheduled to accommodate Mr. Hazare while expressing his willingness to participate in the drafting process provided the government responded to the issues he had raised in his letter.
