Things back to square one, says disappointed Team Anna-Aug 24, 2011

Things back to square one, says disappointed Team Anna

FP Editors Aug 24, 2011

“Things are back to square one. We will have to start from the scratch,” said a disappointed Prashant Bhushan after the meeting of Team Anna with senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee today evening.

“We were told if Anna wants to continue (his fast), that is his concern,” said Arvind Kejriwal, another member of Team Anna.

Prashant Bhushan,Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi speak to the media after meeting with Pranab Mukherjee. PTI

In a sudden change of mood after yesterday’s friendly talks, the government and the aides of Anna Hazare are back to the confrontational tone. The meeting today, which was expected to bring an acceptable solution to the continuing standoff over the Lokpal Bill, ended on a rather bitter note.

“There is clear difference in attitudes between today and yesterday. Yesterday they were receptive, today they were aggressive…The kind of concern they were expressing yesterday was not visible today. It is a totally retrograde,” said Kiran Bedi, one of the prominent members of Team Anna.

She accused the government of involving them only “for the sake of meetings” and said everything has gone back to the drafting stage.

“We are back to the position where we were two days ago when no meetings had taken place. The agreement on procedure which appeared to have been reached yesterday has been withdrawn by them,” Kejriwal said. He added that the government’s negotiators told them that the Jan Lokpal Bill would not be presented in Parliament.

Earlier in the day, an all-party meeting on the controversial bill had ruled out any compromise on the supremacy of parliamentary procedures. It had also made it clear that there could be no deadline set for the passage of the bill. Team Anna is insisting that their Jan Lokpal Bill be placed in Parliament for discussion directly, bypassing the standing committee. It has also set a deadline — 30 August — for the bill to be passed. They are also insisting that the government’s version of the Lokpal Bill be withdrawn.

“Yesterday there seemed to be some progress. Today we are being told that the parliamentary procedure cannot be short-circuited but some timelines can be adhered to,” said Prashant Bhushan.

Salman Khurshid speaks to the media. PTI

Speaking to the media after the meeting, senior minister Salman Khurshid said, “We cannot undermine the official Lokpal Bill that was passed by the Cabinet…There is need for a broad national consensus suggested by all-party meeting and we are working towards that.”

He, however, said the talks were moving positively and added that the priority now was Anna’s health. “We should create circumstances so that he breaks his fast,” he added.

Mukherjee said the members of Team Anna were apprised of the outcome of the all-party meet. “We requested them that there is a parliamentary process to complete…We hope that the parliamentary process will be allowed. We recommended that Anna Hazare ends his fast and that due consideration would be given to Jan Lokpal bill so that an effective Lokpal Bill will be formulated,” he added.

PTI