ANNA TEAM BEFOOLED; GOVERNMENT DRAFT TO BE TABLED TODAY

The whole of India holds its breath as the long anticipated LokPal draft bill enters the cabinet today. But the mayhem continues as the anti-corruption crusaders still yearn for a strong version of the bill (and most probably their own). The activists proclaim that the government version of the draft is at the most ineffective and much to the disappointment of the mango man (aam aadmi). Sources have suggested that the cabinet will scrutinize and analyze the bill today. Their viewpoint would be reflected in the backing or rebuttals of the cabinet ministers but not those ministers who finalized the draft.

And now to summarize all the happenings which we beheld in the process of preparing the draft, it must be recalled that the draft was to be prepared jointly by the two teams, one of the civil society members comprising of 5 people and the government side comprising of 5 cabinet ministers. At a certain point of time the government declared that two independent drafts should be made one, one by the government team and the other team. But at the penultimate time it was declared by the government that only their version of the draft would be passed on to the cabinet. Hence all along the way, the civil society members were kept in dark regarding the real motive of the UPA government. And I think it won’t be wrong to state that the government befooled Anna and his team (right from the start). Team Anna had demanded inclusion of the PM, higher judiciary and civil servants in ambit of the proposed Lokpal, which the ministers did not agree. But they were never taken seriously by the government.

ANNA TEAM BE FOOLED – GOVERNMENT DRAFT TO BE TABLED TODAY

REPORT BY BIKRAM SINGH RANA