Team Anna to meet Parliamentary panel

Just when they seemed to be hurtling towards confrontation, Congress has successfully reached out to the Anna Hazare camp, persuading the civil society activists to appear before the Standing Committee on Law and Justice. Activist Arvind Kejriwal confirmed that he along with his colleagues have accepted the invite from the parliamentary panel led by Congress’s Abhishek Singhvi and will attend the deliberations on Wednesday. Gandhian Anna Hazare, former law minister Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan and Kejriwal are expected to attend the meeting for “preliminary discussions”. The decision to engage the civil society activists when they are in the campaign mode against the government is seen as reflecting Congress’s desire to blunt their campaign. In fact, the Singhvi-led panel appears to have worked with unusual speed, considering that the Lokpal Bill was referred to the committee only on Monday. An engagement also serves the purpose of defusing the perception that government is stubborn and spoiling for a fight, said sources. Meanwhile, a member of Parliament has provided a possible opportunity for discussion on the Lokpal bill in Parliament. Independent MP Rajeev Chandrashekar on Tuesday submitted the `Jan Lokpal Bill’ in the RS. The bill seeks to establish an independent authority to investigate offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The Lokpal will be authorized to “detect corruption by expeditious investigation and to prosecute offenders and to ensure timely redressal of certain types of public grievances and to provide protection to whistleblowers”.’ The private members’ bill could be discussed in the House and provide a forum to legislators to air their views on some of the controversial sections of the anti-corruption legislation. Talks between the Hazare-led group and the government had broken down after the two failed to eye-to-eye over key issues like the powers of the Lokpal, selection process and other contentious issues.