Marked by distrust, and an element of coercion on the government’s part, the UPA-civil society exercise to jointly draft a Lokpal bill formally ended in failure with the two sides exchanging conflicting drafts. The government is unable to accept civil society’s version of an anti--corruption authority with sweeping jurisdiction over the Prime Minister’s Office, top judiciary and actions of MPs in Parliament along with merging entities like the Central Vigilance Commission and the CBI with the Lokpal. The final meeting of the drafting committee predictably ended in failure. Although the conclusion was foregone, there was no animosity. The government will be relieved that an exercise it had accepted under duress is over, although it does have activist Anna Hazare’s threatened August 16 fast to deal with. In keeping with its strategy, the government took the issue to its UPA allies at a meeting on Tuesday evening where finance minister Pranab Mukherjee explained how the talks with the Hazare group had gone. The next step will be to take the two differing drafts to an all-party meeting. The government is now banking on the distaste of parties and MPs to ceding powers to a new powerful judicial-administrative authority with a mandate to probe graft cases. The Centre has decided to begin the monsoon session of Parliament from August 1, ensuring that Anna Hazare’s protest-fast over Lokpal bill from August 16 puts him face to face with the entire political spectrum and spreads the government’s burden to its rivals too. The all-party meeting on the Lokpal bill is likely on July 3.
With the meetings of the joint Lokpal bill panel failing to provide a breakthrough, the government is hoping the discussions among allies, within Cabinet, political parties and Parliament will expose the “limitations” of the Anna Hazare draft. Not attempting to gloss over the divide, HRD minister Kapil Sibal said “both sides had agreed to disagree”. The joint drafting committee saw the government asserting that it could not allow the creation of a parallel governance structure with overarching power that is “answerable to nobody”. Activists, on the other hand, expressed their “disappointment”, saying the government draft was a “symbolic attempt” to install an authority rather than a “comprehensive, independent, empowered” institution to fight corruption. They agreed that the government’s initial offer had been improved upon, but it was still not enough. The government draft empowers the Lokpal to take cognizance of an act of corruption, gives the body power to investigate cases against officials above deputy secretary rank and waives the need for sanction to prosecute those above joint secretary rank. It can recommend transfer and suspension during the course of a probe and provide for time-bound trial by special courts. Law minister Veerappa Moily said the mandate of the committee was to prepare a Lokpal bill and not rewrite the Constitution, reiterating that the government criticism that the Hazare group’s proposal to oversee higher judiciary and rework parliamentary privileges was simply unviable and would not stand scrutiny of the courts. “The government has no intention of bringing a strong Lokpal bill. It is misleading the people. Now, there is no option but to go on fast from August 16 as announced earlier,” Hazare said. His team said differences persisted as the government had rejected major demands and identified new ones, including the omission of fines if an official does not comply by a citizens’ charter. Hazare associate Arvind Kejriwal said the government draft also allowed for a person accused of corruption to be given a hearing by the Lokpal. “The CBI, in its compromised position, is still a better instrument than the draft that the government has presented. This kind of faulty procedures will make the process ineffective,” he said.
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