Team Anna meets BJP, Left

Taking their fight for the Lokpal Bill to political parties, the Anna Hazare -led civil society on Friday met BJP veteran L K Advani and CPI leader A B Bardhan. India Against Corruption (IAC) members, including Kiran Bedi, Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, had a brief meeting with the BJP leader regarding their version of the Lokpal Bill. The activists plan to meet members of both the parties again before July 3. “The meeting was very encouraging. Advani told us that the country needs an effective Lokpal. He heard us and requested us that we make a detailed presentation before senior BJP leaders,” Bedi said after the meeting. Kejriwal added that the activists would meet BJP leaders again before July 3 after top party leaders, including Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Nitin Gadkari, are back in the country. IAC members plan to meet national parties to explain their stand and their opposition to the government’s Lokpal draft. The Anna camp said they were not looking for assurances from the BJP at this point as they only wanted to put across their views and brief Advani about it. The meeting was part of the Hazare team’s efforts to reach out to the political parties. They had earlier announced that they would meet all political parties. Raising their pitch on the Lokpal Bill, the Hazare team on Thursday alleged that the government version of the draft was not aimed at fighting corruption but at targeting those who complain against the menace. The Hazare team felt that the exclusion of a large chunk of bureaucracy from the ambit of Lokpal and the provision to hear officials accused of corruption before filing of case and chargesheet were not proper.