Team Anna on Tuesday said extension of Winter Session of Parliament will be worth only if a strong Lokpal Bill is brought with Central Bureau of Investigation out of government control.
An overwhelming majority of MPs think that in less than five years the Lokpal will become the most corrupt institution in India. Sheela Bhatt reports.
Former Indian Police Service officer turned social activist Kiran Bedi on Friday dismissed suggestions that civil society had gone too far on the Lokpal Bill, saying the Anna Hazare-led agitation was very much "avoidable" but was made relevant by government's inaction on the issue.
Casting doubts on government's intentions over the Lokpal Bill, Anna Hazare on Sunday accused it of repeatedly betraying his team and said he is firm with his agitation plan if an effective anti-graft legislation was not passed in the ongoing winter session of Parliament.
With the Union Cabinet expected to take up the Lokpal Bill for consideration, the Congress on Sunday kept it fingers crossed on the passage of the legislation in Parliament.
Anna Hazare is likely to be present in the viewers' gallery of the Parliament when the Lokpal Bill would be tabled and discussed, sources close to him said in Mumbai on Friday.
Team Anna member Kiran Bedi on Thursday night said Anna Hazare will postpone his protests if Parliament session is extended to introduce and get the Lokpal Bill passed.
The Congress on Monday dared social activist Anna Hazare to contest from the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat in New Delhi after the latter released findings of his team's survey in Union Minister Kapil Sibal's constituency on the Lokpal issue
After the all party meeting on Wednesday, the Union cabinet is likely to meet either on Sunday or Monday morning to clear the bill after which it will be placed before the house, possibly by December 20, reports Renu Mittal.
As Anna Hazare stepped up his campaign for the Jan Lokpal Bill, Congress on Sunday accused the activist of insulting Parliament and indulging in politics by attacking Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
Jantar Mantar, in New Dellhi, is busy readying itself for Sunday, when activist Anna Hazare will go on a token one-day fast to protest against the government's version of the Lokpal Bill.
Team Anna on Monday invited leaders of all parties to Jantar Mantar on December 11, when Anna Hazare plans to sit on a day-long fast, to put their views on Lokpal Bill, a deviation from its stand on previous occasions when it did not allow politicians to share its platform.
As Parliamentary Standing Committee went back on some of its recommendations on Lokpal Bill, Team Anna member Kiran Bedi on Thursday night slammed it as an effort to make the ombdusman an "enquiry-pal" and said it confirms her remarks that politicians wear several masks.
Kejriwal spoke exclusively to rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt and was making his final position clear. Before the third round of agitation against corruption begins in the last week of December read the logic and passion behind it in this the first of a two-part series.
Ruling out the inclusion of judiciary under the ambit of Lokpal, a Parliamentary panel which scrutinised the measure, has recommended a revamp of the appointment process of judges of the Supreme Court and the high courts.
Disappointed over the draft report of the Standing Committee on Lokpal Bill, Team Anna member Kiran Bedi has warned that going back on the commitment given by Parliament would encourage a mass movement again. When asked for her comments on the draft report which sought to keep lower bureaucracy out of the ambit of the ombudsman, Bedi said, "This is going back on the commitment and will call for mass movement again".
Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal alleged on Monday that the Union government's decision to allow foreign direct investment in the retail sector is linked to corruption.
The Parliamentary Panel going into the Lokpal Bill will take a call on the issue of inclusion of Prime Minister in the anti-corruption watchdog at its meeting this week, its chairman Abhishek Sighvi said on Sunday.
Alleging that crores of rupees are being spent to jeopardise the Jan Lokpal bill, Anna Hazare on Thursday said the activists will not lose sight of their goal and will not reply to continuous innuendos made by those seeking "cheap publicity".
Union minister and a key member of the Lokpal bill drafting committee Kapil Sibal on Thursday said that Team Hazare's version of the legislation was unacceptable, as some of its provisions were against the basic tenets of the Constitution.
The Communist Party of India on Friday said the Left will move an adjournment motion in the Winter Session of Parliament on the price rise issue as it accused the United Progressive Alliance government of not being able to control double-digit inflation and demanded deregulation of fuel prices.
On the eve of the winter session of Parliament, rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt narrates how the Congress party views the issues of corruption, Team Anna and Lokpal bill.
Questioning the Bharatiya Janata Party's "silence" over Lokpal Bill, Congress on Friday accused the opposition party of "political opportunism" and dared it to spell out its stand on the demand for bringing the prime minister and higher judiciary under the ambit of Lokpal.
Castigating Congress leaders and ministers for allegedly targeting social activist Anna Hazare and yoga guru Ramdev on the Lokpal issue, Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday alleged that the Centre was behaving like an autocrat.
The wife and daughters of Sarabjit Singh, who has been languishing in the jail in Lahore for over 20 years, have brought their struggle to secure his release to New Delhi. Rediff.com's Priyanka catches up with them at Jantar Mantar
The ongoing slanging match between the civil society group and the government poses a danger of stalling the Lokpal Bill and derailing the movement against corruption.
Seeking to mount pressure on government, Anna Hazare on Tuesday threatened to launch another hunger strike from the last day of Parliament's Winter Session if a strong Jan Lokpal Bill is not passed by then.
Amid clamour for its revamp over allegations of financial conduct by some key members, the core committee of Team Anna met in Ghaziabad on Saturday with Kiran Bedi asserting that there were no differences within the movement.
Facing Anna Hazare's threat to go on an indefinite fast from August 16, the government and the Congress on Thursday hardened its stand, making it clear to activists involved in the drafting the Lokpal Bill that Parliament is the final authority in making laws.
Followers of activist Anna Hazare on Tuesday declared that they didn't want a confrontation with the Delhi police, in an apparent reaction to Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal's strong statement against the "abusive language" allegedly used by the activists.No defiance of prohibitory orders, no courting arrest by insisting on a fast at Jantar Mantar and no boycott of the joint committee the government formed at the insistence of Hazare to draft the Lokpal Bill, the group decided.
Civil society activists led by social activist Anna Hazare on Monday boycotted the meeting of the joint drafting committee on the Lokpal Bill saying government's intentions raised serious doubts about having a strong anti-corruption watchdog and protesting against the police crackdown on Ramdev.
Condemning the recent assaults on civil society activists and stating that Anna Hazare's movement had served its purpose, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday assured that a bill for a strong Lokpal would soon be cleared.
As serious differences over various provisions marred the drafting of the Lokpal Bill, civil society members on Wednesday invited government nominees for a public debate on contentious issues, which could be telecast live on TV.
With the political class ranged against them, the civic representatives of the panel drafting the Lokpal bill face an uphill battle. Sheela Bhatt reports from New Delhi.
Talks on the Lokpal Bill are not progressing as expected and if the attitude of the government does not change it may spell disaster soon, said Prashant Bhushan, one of the five members of the Anna Hazare-led civil society group, who is on the drafting panel of the Bill.
Anna Hazare has put off his planned yatra against the Congress demanding a strong Lokpal Bill and will now wait till the end of the winter session of Parliament.
Reflecting a rift within Team Anna Hazare, Justice Santosh Hegde has disapproved of the anti-Congress campaign by activist Arvind Kejriwal during the Hisar bypolls, saying it was not the right thing to do and "we jumped the gun".
Till corruption is removed from the country, people would not get their true freedom, anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare said in Guwahati on Friday.
Former Karnataka Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde on Wednesday suggested that corporates and NGOs should also be brought under the purview of the Jan Lokpal bill.
"We propose to cover organisations like ISRO and arms deals under the purview of Jan Lokpal as they are important from internal security angle, besides the Prime Minister above all who will come under its jurisdiction," Karnataka Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde, part of the 10-member Joint Drafting Committee on Lokpal Bill, told media persons in Bengaluru.
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