"Today's meeting was quite disastrous," a two-page statement issued by the civil society movement after today's meeting said giving details of the demands made and government's rejection of them.
The Lokpal Bill drafting committee today appeared headed for a collision course with the government opposing demands to bring the prime minister, higher judiciary and MPs' corrupt acts inside Parliament under its purview, provoking a civil society threat to take to the streets again.
"Today's meeting was quite disastrous," a two-page statement issued by the civil society movement after today's meeting said giving details of the demands made and government's rejection of them.
The statement said, "definitely, government's intentions are suspect. Please prepare yourself for the next huge movement in the country. We will go to the government in the next few meetings."
"We will try our best to persuade the government to a strong and effective Lokpal Bill. But if the government disagrees, we should be ready to taking to streets," it said.
The strong statement came after the activists led by Anna Hazare, who are members of the joint drafting committee on the bill, accused the government of being "hostile" and showing "immensely negative attitude" to their suggestions because of which today's meeting ended in a "compete disaster".
At the fifth meeting of the joint committee, the civil society activists pushed for the inclusion of prime minister, higher judiciary and MPs, including their actions inside Parliament, armed forces and entire bureaucracy under the Lokpal's ambit.
However, the government nominees opposed these demands saying inclusion of the prime minister would make him dysfunctional. They told the civil society members that they would seek views of state governments and political parties on "issues of divergence" and get back to them at the next meeting on June 6.
Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan, both members of the committee, said they did not agree with the government stand and if it is accepted, then it will leave only 2,000 officials under the ambit of the Lokpal.
"Today's meeting was a complete disaster. We may walk out after the June six meeting if there is no forward movement. If there is some positive movement in the next meeting, if there is a glimmer of hope, we will continue," Kejriwal told PTI.
Kapil Sibal, however, expressed confidence that the bill for a strong and effective Lokpal will be a reality.
"We must provide the country with a transparent legislation as corruption is an issue which concerns everybody. We remain committed to provide the people an effective Lokpal," he said.
The civil society statement listed the contentious issues and said broadly the government "disagreed on everything".
It said the civil society members were "shocked" to hear the government position that the "Prime Minister should not be covered under Lokpal". They pointed out that the draft bill prepared by the government in January this year, the prime minister was covered though with some exceptions.
The government said if any enquiry starts against the prime minister, then he would lose all authority to govern and take decisions.
Prashant Bhushan reminded the government side that in Bofors case, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was under scanner but that did not deter him from taking decisions.
The statement said home minister P Chidambaram told the meeting that the prime minister's position would be weakened if there were allegations against him every other day. He was reminded that an unsubstantiated complaint would not be entertained.
A sevenmember bench of Lokpal would first hear that complaint that decide whether there was an adequate prima facie evidence against the prime minister. If there were none, the complaint would be dismissed. However, government did not agree, the statement said.
Kejriwal argued, "today we have an honest prime minister. But if we happen to have a dishonest prime minister tomorrow, should his wrongdoings be out of the Lokpal? Are we willing to make that compromise?"
Hazare, one of the members of the committee, who is spearheading the campaign for a strong and effective Lokpal Bill, said that he was not hopeful of the government meeting its deadline of June 30 for preparing the bill.
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