Hazare steps up campaign, brushes aside Sonia's appeal

New Delhi, Apr 7 (PTI) Stepping up his anti-corruption
campaign, Indian anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare Thursday
night brushed aside Sonia Gandhi's appeal to him to withdraw
his hunger strike as Government initiated talks on formation
of a joint committee to draft an effective Lokpal (Ombudsman)
Bill but there was no consensus on two crucial aspects.
Government Thursday agreed to the formation of a
committee with equal representation for civil society members
and government representatives. But it is said to be having
reservations over how to formally notify constituting it and
give its chairmanship to a private individual, which could be
setting a precedent.
"I thank Sonia Gandhi for her statement (appealing to
him to end the fast). Soniaji, tell the government to get the
Lokpal bill enacted at the earliest," Hazare said in a terse
reaction to Gandhi's appeal.
His address to the gathering at Jantar Mantar in Delhi
was received with wide approbation by his followers as his
campaign received further momentum across the country.
Under pressure from a surging anti-corruption
campaign, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met with his Cabinet
colleague Kapil Sibal late in the night and discussed ways to
find a means to resolve the situation.
Sibal, who had earlier in the day held two rounds of
discussions with Hazare's emissaries--Swami Agnivesh and
Arvind Kejriwal--is understood to have discussed with Singh
the ticklish issue of the demand for notifying the joint
committee of civil society members and government
representatives and who would head it.
Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar was also present
in the meeting.
In the morning talks, the government agreed to the
activists' demand for constituting the committee with five
members each from both the sides but there was no no agreement
on a formal notification to constitute it and on the demand
that Hazare should head it. Another meeting between Sibal and
the two emissaries are scheduled Friday morning.
As his hunger strike entered the third day, Congress
President Sonia Gandhi appealed to the 71-year-old Gandhian to
give up his fast, assuring him that his views would receive
the governemnt's full attention.
She said there could be no no two views on the urgent
necessity of combating graft and corruption in public life.
"I am sure that Hazareji's views will receive the
government's full attention as we move forward to fight this
meance. I appeal to Anna to give up his fast," Gandhi said in
her appeal.
Hazare rejected government's offer of an informal
committee and vowed not to end his protest till the demands
are met.

"I will fight till death," Hazare said addressing
hundreds of supporters gathered near Jantar Mantar here after
word spread that talks between government and anti-corruption
activists were deadlocked.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the government's
reluctance to come out with a notification to constitute the
committee, he said his fast will continue.
There was confusion even in Hazare's camp. Agnivesh
and Kejriwal and the assembled gathering demanded that Hazare
should be made the Chairman but the Gandhian himself said he
would just like to be a member of the committee which can be
headed by a retired judge.
After his talks with Agnivesh and Kejriwal, Sibal said
"We had two rounds of discussions. We have agreed on almost
all issues but there is no agreement on two issues, that is
issuing an official notification to form the committee
and making Hazare the chairman of the committee.
"So we need more time and we will meet again tomorrow
and see we can evolve a procedure with which we can move
ahead," he said.
The Minister said the government has agreed to form
the committee now and not after May 13 as it had suggested in
the first round of talks and will definitely be introducing
the Bill in the Monsoon session of Parliament.
The proposed panel will have five members each from
government and civil society. "The government has agreed to
our demands. But our two demands are yet to be met. We will
convey this to Hazare," Agnivesh said.
Hazare, who his admirers and followers have been
demanding should head the committee, said he would not like to
chair it. "If you want I can be a member or adviser, but not
the chairperson," he said.
Earlier, Kejriwal said Hazare was of the view that a
retired judge should be the Chairman of the committee as the
government suggested that Pranab Mukherjee head the panel.
However, he said, when this proposal was put forward
to his supporters they unanimously demanded that Hazare be the
chairperson of the joint committee.
In his address to the supporters in the evening,
Hazare said politicians do not want a Lokpal Bill because that
will stop the 'loot'.