The passing of the Lokpal bill at the winter session of the Parliament which is proposed to end in less than a week, on December 22^nd appears to be not viable as the deadlock over the Lokpal bill continues. In the all-party meeting held on Wednesday night presided by Prime Minister Manmohan Sigh consensus on the controversial issues could not be reached as all the major political parties stood by their stand on the key issues.

One of the key issues that caused the split between the UPA Government and the Opposition was the question of bringing the Central Bureau of Investigation within the realm of the Lokpal. This issue even caused division within the Opposition.

Even after over three hours of deliberations on Wednesday there was no lucidity as to whether the Lokpal Bill will match the expectations of Team Anna and the Opposition. An Opposition leader stated that the all-party meeting was almost a “replay” of what happened at the Parliamentary Committee that looked into the provisions of the Bill in detail.

The chances of the Bill being passed in the winter session seems bleak with so many differences looming over the provisions of the Bill despite the open statement made by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the government was “committed” to implementing in “letter and spirit” a good and effective bill based on political consensus as reaching a consensus on these contentious issues appears to be easier said than done in such a short period of time.

CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury criticized the government by saying that there is no commitment by the government on whether they will bring the Lokpal Bill in this session or not.

Amidst all these, Anna Hazare and his supporters are not planning to make things easy for the government even though there is a possibility of Anna shifting his protest to Mumbai due to the harsh weather in Delhi.

Lokpal Bill: Deadlock continues

Report by Radhalakshmi R