Team Anna today made it clear that a mere discussion in Parliament will not serve any purpose and the Gandhian will not call off his fast till Parliament passes a resolution that the cleared Lokpal Bill will include three contentious points raised by them.
“Mere discussion will not be enough,” lawyer Mr Prashant Bhushan, a Team Anna member, told reporters here after a meeting with the CPI (M) General Secretary, Mr Prakash Karat, here.
He said Mr Hazare had made it clear that he will break his fast only if Parliament passes a resolution “adopting or indicating clearly” that the Lokpal, which will be passed, includes the three issues.
“Therefore, we need to see what Parliament does on this.
There is no point in just discussing it. We had discussed it for the past 42 years and eight times it was introduced in Parliament,” he said.
Mr Bhushan’s remarks came as the Government earlier said that discussion on Jan Lokpal Bill as demanded by Mr Hazare may not be possible in Lok Sabha during the day. There were reports that some MPs had given notice for discussion on Lokpal issue under a section which does not entail voting.
Government sources last night said that a motion will be brought to facilitate a combined discussion on the Lokpal Bill, the Jan Lokpal Bill brought out by Mr Hazare as also the drafts prepared by activist Ms Aruna Roy and Mr Jai Prakash Narain.
He said there are rules under which the issue can be discussed. “Every rule in Parliament can be waived by a motion. If they want to discuss, they can do,” he said.
Addressing protesters at Ramlila Maidan where Mr Hazare is sitting on a fast, another Team Anna member Ms Kiran Bedi echoed Bhushan’s views and said Mr Hazare will end the fast once Parliament passes a resolution which includes three sticky issues — all civil servants should be brought under Lokpal, a Citizen Charter should be displayed at all government offices and all states should have Lokayukta.
Activist Ms Medha Patkar, a member of the Core Committee of Team Anna, said everything was going right till yesterday and now the Government was changing its stand.
“This is a big opportunity for UPA but if it wants to commit suicide, let them,” she told reporters.
She also criticised the choice of Government mediators, saying that those appointed to talk to Mr Hazare should have a clean image.
“Government should appoint people with clean image as mediators. (Law Minister) Salman Khurshid is fine.
(Maharashtra Chief Minister) Prithviraj Chavan is fine. But one should not forget that Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is accused of irregularities in Adarsh scam,” she said.
Mr Khurshid is one of the members of the Government negotiating team led by the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, which also has East Delhi MP, Mr Sandeep Dikshit, as a member.
Mr Deshmukh had met Mr Hazare yesterday as the Government stepped up efforts to end the stand-off on the Lokpal Bill.