The letter written by prime minister seems to be mere formality; it’s nowhere close to the demands of Anna and his team. It is very clear that the government is trying to give the message that several clauses in the Anna’s draft is not practical and it won’t be accepted as it is. Moreover, his letter also tried to make a precise point that there are other groups of civil societies too and that the Government will consider their point of view. Prime Minister rubbished the basic demands of team Anna by saying that boils down to semantic debate.
Any ways let us be practical. We all love bribes, whether they are good or bad. But, for some, definitely it is not a good idea. For the people belonging to middle and small income group, it is not something that really makes them happy unless they get their work done by bribing the concerned authorities.
Unless the Indian masses are taken into confidence, the movement cannot succeed. I have no hesitation in stating that the members of Team Anna appear to be more focused at hogging the limelight by their ubiquitous presence before the TV Media. Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi are media crazy. They must share the information with the masses who are agitated all across the country. They cannot hijack the movement spearheaded by Anna Hazare by any means.
One fails to understand how and why the politicians with shady credentials like Sandeep Dikshit, son of Sheila Dikshit, are being associated with the secret parleys between Salman Khursheed, the Law minister and Arvind Kejriwal? Does it need it be recalled that the reputation of the son and mother duo is at stake in the context of CWG and other Scams. How could they be privy to talks between Team Anna and Team Congress? This is most unfortunate that the government is dealing with the agitation in the most casual manner. It is time they realise that if anything happens to Anna, the movement will not remain peaceful and it would indeed be impossible for them to control the situation.
If you are not a politician or a Congress supporter, then you can understand what I want to explain to you. The services of the Police are available to us to handle issues of corruption (like if anybody riding bike without helmets). But can you tell me if any police employee indulges in corruption, then how will you to handle that case? Like that we have all kinds of rules to handle the common people but why we don't have good rules or laws to prevent the Judiciary or the politicians from being corrupt? That is why the public servants do not think twice before accepting bribes from the common citizens. They are almost playing with our democracy and our country. If we are asking to frame a law to handle these corrupt politicians, police and government officials then what is the wrong with that? Politicians are scared because Jan lokpal will expose their corrupt practices. We have to force them to make laws (Jan lokpal) to handle their corruption otherwise they will not make any such law with would go against them.
We need the Jan lokpal bill to pass to punish corrupt politicians and all other public servants. If we are able to pass the Jan Lokpal bill, then these sectors (politics, police and government) will be corruption free, once these sectors will become corruption free, then they will work honestly to make our country corruption fee. All this sounds like an unrealistic story. Let it be Anna’s lokpal or Aruna’s lokpal; just by passing the bill nothing can be achieved; there is no guarantee of clean governance even if these bills are passed.
The initial step has to be taken by the people of India; but by going door to door, we are just making mockery by creating violence. By panicking minister’s family, by using bad words under the cover of Anna, one cannot achieve anything; rather, the revolution would take an ugly turn. Even team Anna has also realised this.
While addressing his supporters, Anna gave them a clear message that they should not take the path of violence; that if they do, the government will crush them. The government is very powerful. Non-violence is a very “powerful weapon,” he said. But the point is that why did he order people to go door to door and who was there to check the credentials of these support groups visiting minister’s places? In a way, this is breach of security and you are asking your supporters to violate the security rules. This is the reason the government has not been able to crush us so far. There was also a group of people who had come drunk to the venue and created ruckus last week. Finally 74 years old Hazare had to appeal to all his supporters not to come drunk. Even otherwise, they should not drink or smoke as it affects their health.
Hazare's associates demanded that the government appoint an official representative for talks on the Lokpal Bill even as the anti-corruption activist's health deteriorated with eight days of fasting and doctors advised him maximum rest. An early solution to the Lokpal logjam is in sight, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh writing to Anna Hazare to call off his fast. This comes amid government and Team Anna getting ready for direct talks, with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee representing the government. The prime minister is also holding a high-level meeting to resolve the issue. Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi may also attend it. Moreover when Rahul is holding meetings with everyone over the lokpal bill issue, then why is he not meeting Hazare? Or why has he never visited him? Meanwhile, hectic back-channel negotiations were going on between Team Anna as the fast continued for the eighth day. As Hazare's health took a turn for worse, the government began talks on multiple fronts.
Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who met members of Hazare's core group, opened negotiations with opposition parties. The office of Prime Minister deputed government's top most crisis manager Mukherjee and Law Minister Salman Khurshid to salvage the festering standoff. The government is also falling back on the senior Marathi ministers in the UPA cabinet. Many of them like former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh are considered close to Hazare. The help of Sushil Kumar Shinde and Sharad Pawar has also been sought. Social Activists Swami Agnivesh too spoke to Khurshid.
Till Monday, Anna was quite reluctant that he will speak to only Rahul or Prime Mimister, and today when they realised government’s adamancy and Ann’s health, Kejriwal clarified that Hazare had not insisted that he will talk only with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi. He wants to meet someone who is officially sent by the government. In its proposal, it is learnt that the government has proposed that the Lok Sabha Speaker can take decision to send the Jan Lokpal Bill directly to the Standing Committee. The government has also proposed that the prime minister be brought under Lokpal, although an inquiry can be initiated against him only after he remits office. To strengthen the judiciary, the government has proposed that a judicial standard accountability bill will be introduced in Parliament. It also proposes to include civil society members in the draft panel. A separate grievance redressal mechanism has been proposed, which will hear the complaints against government officials and departments.
The government has also proposed that once the Lokpal Bill is passed, all state chief ministers would be asked to appoint Lokayuktas on the basis of Jan Lokpal.
Let see what would be the outcome of the high end drama of meetings and negotiations.
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