Lokpal Bill: NDA to meet today to finalise stand

Two days before the all party meeting on the Lokpal Bill, the opposition party itself in a peculiar position in the Anna Hazare versus government debate as the self styled civil society members were out of sync with it. It does not suit the BJP to pull the government out of the mess it created by engaging the activists and keeping all parties out of the legislation of bill so far. At the same time, strong differences occurred between BJP and Anna Hazare about critical provisions in the activist's draft of the bill. The BJP is of the opinion that it does not want MP's conduct in parliament and the state leaders to be brought under the Lokpal's purview. Anna Hazare and his team held detailed discussions on Friday afternoon with the BJP members about the activist's version of the Lokpal draft. Though the BJP assured the "civil society" members that it was fully committed to the creation of a strong and credible Lokpal, the party had reservations about their draft. The BJP raised objections with regard to the creation of state Lokayuktas through the same legislation, including MP's conduct within the Parliament in the ambit of the Lokpal. The BJP could also generate some more heat on the contentious clause in the activist's bill i.e. inclusion of the Prime Minister in its ambit. While the party did not clarify its position on this clause. Sources said that there were "strong voices" within the party for including the PM in the Lokpal. However, the BJP did not want to affect the sentiments of the activists as they reflect the populist sentiment against corruption. So, Advani asked his party leaders to "seek clarifications" instead of countering Anna and his group. For the purpose of asking pointed questions on specific clauses, the BJP team comprise of three famous lawyers as well namely Jaitley, Swaraj and Prasad. The BJP party leader Advani claimed that here all the people are committed to a strong anti-corruption legislation. However, even Jaitely could not deny the fact that there were "many a constitutional hurdles" in activist's framework. The Leader of the Opposition party in the Rajya Sabha states that "there have been concerns about the mechanism for the appointment of the Lokpal". According to the party general secretary and senior spokesperson Prasad, anything that interferes with the federal structure of the country, is not acceptable to the BJP. Prasad claims that "Law and order and the police are strictly state subjects". The UPA has so far given them no reason to believe that the creation of an agency with police powers will not be misused to target opposition-led states and also expressed their disagreement on the clause. A meeting of the NDA has been convened today to evolve a common strategy before the all-party meeting over the issue on Sunday.