Information Madness

Anna Hazare has finally broken his fast after the government decided to form a joint committee for redrafting the Lokpal Bill. The government took this move due to widespread protest against it. Anna Hazare has acknowledged that this will be one of the most memorable days of his life as all his demands were accepted by the government and so he eded his fast today around 10 am. He declared this as a victory for the entire nation.

Our PM Manmohan Singh is happy and relieved that Hazare agreed to break his fast and he also said that it is good to see the government and the civil society come at an agreement to fight corruption.

Hazare has reportedly gone onto a fast to death and it had been almost 4 days that he had eaten anything when the government decided to agree to his demands of redrafting a stronger Lokpal Bill. The government negotiators were led by Mr Kapil Sibal who was also relieved by Hazare breaking his fast and coming to this understanding.

According to him this victory was not for one man but the victory was ultimately of democracy and now the government should issue appropriate orders to constitute a committee comprising of both the civil society and the government.

This panel will reportedly be a 10 member committee comprising of 5 civil society members and 5 government spokesmen. The members from the civil society include Anna Hazare, Shanti Bhusan, Prasahnt Bhusan (lawyers), Arvind Kejriwal(anti-corruption activist) and Santosh hedge who was a former Supreme Court judge.

The committee will be headed by the FM Pranab Mukherjee. The members from the government will be Veerappa Moily (Law Minister), Sibal (Telecom minister), P Chidambram(Home Minister) and Salman Khurshid (resource minister).

Soon after this decision the people protesting against it in all parts of the country erupted in joy. The government has also agreed to introduce the Lokpal Bill in the oncoming Monsoon session of Parliament.

This 10 member joint committee will be convened by Moily and they will immediately start their work. The committee is free to use its own procedures to make the legislation. Since the bill has to be proposed in the upcoming monsoon session the committee needs to finish its work very fast. The Work has to be done before 30th June for the approval of the cabinet as the monsoon session will start in the first week of July.

Mr sibal was delighted by the fact that the government and civil society have worked together with such solidarity because this shows the strength of our democracy as we are now capable of solving such intractable internal problems. He also said that the government has not bowed down to any illegitimate demand but only come to a compromise on a legitimate demand as corruption is a bane for the government as well as the civil society.

Earlier Hazare had said that the draft proposed by the government had many short comings and so he would continue the fast but now all this has been resolved.

The problem was treated as one of the top priority problems and Sonia Gandhi consulted with Manmohan Singh on the matter to resolve this as soon as possible. The bill will be introduced in the next session of Parliament.

The bill will be brought up in monsoon session and the 10 member committee is working hard to come up with a better draft before the new session. It has been made clear by Kiran Bedi and other supporters of Hazare that the Protestants won’t stop till the government has not issued a new draft regarding the same.