LOK PAL BILL: Team Anna rejects Lokpal Bill cleared by Union Cabinet!

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PTI / The Hindu / NEW DELHI, July 28, 2011.

Civil Society activists Kiran Bedi and Prashant Bhushan during a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday - PTI.

Anna Hazare will sit on an indefinite fast again in New Delhi from August 16 demanding the withdrawal of the government-approved version of the Bill.

The Anna Hazare team on Thursday dismissed the Lokpal Bill approved by government as a “cruel joke” which will be struck down as unconstitutional by Supreme Court “within a minute” and said the Gandhian will sit on an indefinite fast here from August 16 demanding its withdrawal.

Accusing the government of bringing a “fractured Lokpal” for corporates and to “fool” people, the activists said they may challenge the Bill if passed by Parliament in its present form by keeping the Prime Minister out its ambit.

“The entire country will protest with me at Jantar Mantar on August 16...This is not Hazare’s protest but the entire country’s. The people need to look at this as a second fight for their freedom and they should all come out on the streets,” Mr. Hazare said in Maharashtra’s Ralegaon Siddi.

His asscociate Arvind Kejriwal told reporters in New Delhi that Mr. Hazare’s fast will be to demand withdrawal of the Bill cleared by the Cabinet and bring a stronger law in place of the bill, which he alleged would not give any succour to common people in the fight against corruption.

The Bill proposes to keep the office of Prime Minister outside its purview during his term in office besides excluding higher judiciary and conduct of MPs inside Parliament.

Disappointed at the government “leaving out majority” of the points raised by the civil society, lawyer Prashant Bhushan said the government’s decision to exclude the office of Prime Minister from the ambit of Lokpal would not stand the scrutiny of court.

01) For over four decades the Lok Pal hasn't been established at all due to differences of opinion on the inclusion of the Top-4 Constitutional Offices under its purview;

02) Now, for the first time the Government is ready to introduce a Lok Pal Bill, without including the PM and other top Constitutional Officers;

03) It still has to get passed in the Parliament and we will have to wait and see what stand the present leadership of various political parties would take on this Government's Draft;

04) I, personally, never wanted an omnibus bill that would include higher judiciary under Lok Pal's purview, contrary to the views of the Team-Anna, whom we all have been supporting so far;

05) My own reading of the mood of the intelligentsia is that they are tired of not having a Lok Pal in the first place and are unwilling to continue to fight for some Utopian Lok Pal, which the political parties - who ultimately decide the fate of the Lok Pal Bill in the Parliament - would never accept;

06) As for Team-Anna, they should realise that this time around there wouldn't be much support the way people have backed their initiative in the past, due to shear tiredness of the issue getting dragged on for too long;

07) Finally, let there be a Lok Pal in place, to start with and let the future generations of Parliamentarians, Intelligentsia and the Public amend it from time to time, as per the need of the times;

Full Story at,

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2302166.ece

LOK PAL BILL: De-greasing India - By Farrukh Dhondy

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Have you read, “Mayhem of the Miserables!” available @ http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52075

July 2, 2011 DC.

“Flavour salt lassi with Worcester Sauce

Mix Chaat Masala in your Bloody Mary
Fry Madrasi keyley as a second course —
When you hear the word ‘fusion’ be very wary”

From The Hymns of Feromonus by Bachchoo

At the beginning of the Anna Hazare agitation a young friend of mine wrote a piece in an influential space voicing his disapproval of extra-parliamentary action. He said Mr Hazare and his associates were resorting to blackmail. They should instead rely on the Indian democratic system to redress grievances. Laws should be made by the ballot box, which has the power to uproot the corrupt.

Losing elections wouldn’t mean that these politicians ended up breaking stones at the President’s pleasure, but they could be further investigated and punished by the police and courts.

There now seems to be a deadlock in the discussions on the Lokpal Bill and on questions of who should be given the power to do what to whom. My young friend is not alone and his argument has been variously stated. It seems to be the position of all constitutional fundamentalists and with some detail added, the position of the government representatives on the panel.

When political parties and the Government of the Day fail to address the grave malady of the system activist will rise from among the people and raise the consciousness levels of the social evils and also forces the state to adapt appropriate measure to cure the gangrene!

Full Article at,

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/editorial/dc-comment/de-greasing-india-000

Lok Pal Bill: Lokpal: Cong asks govt to deal firmly with Team Hazare!

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Kay Benedict  | India Today, New Delhi, June 25, 2011 | Updated 08:31 IST.

Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare.

The stage is set for a confrontation between the government and the anti-corruption crusaders led by Anna Hazare as theCongress on Friday made it clear it was ready to take on the Gandhian and his band of supporters over the Lokpal Bill issue.

The party favoured a tough stand at the crucial Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting held over the issue on Friday evening.

The reconstituted high-powered CWC in its first formal meeting urged the government to deal firmly with Hazare, who has threatened to go on a fast again from August 16 for a "strong" Lokpal Bill, and his supporters.

Almost all the Congress leaders who participated in the meeting were of the view that a group of four or five people "masquerading as civil society" and their confrontationist attitude was dangerous for parliamentary democracy.

Many members criticised the government for succumbing to the pressure of "four or five people" who had ganged up against the government in the name of civil society.

I, firmly, feel Team Anna should stop threatening with one more 'fast-onto-death' and work with all the political parties to achieve a consensus to enable the to be passed in Parliament!

UPA Government has done all it could do and now the ball is in the court of the political parties!

Full Story at,

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/story/lokpal-cong-asks-govt-to-deal-firmly-with-team-hazare/1/142670.html

Lok Pal Bill: Another version of Lokpal Bill from civil society to be released!

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Chetan Chauhan , Hindustan Times / New Delhi, June 17, 2011.

Team Anna’s Lokpal draft would soon have a rival from another section of civil society and could be more accommodating for the government.  The National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI), an umbrella body of RTI activists including members of Team Anna Arvind Kejriwal and Pras hant Bhushan, will come up a comprehensive package on tackling corruption including a lokpal bill.

"A sub-group is finalizing a lokpal bill draft along with others measures to deal with corruption," said Venkatesh Nayak, co-convener of NCPRI, adding that it was difficult to agree with everything what Team Anna did after April 2011.

The decision to draft a parallel civil society Lokpal Bill was taken after Team Anna did not include any of NCPRI’s suggestions in the Jan Lokpal Bill placed before the joint drafting committee in April. The drafting committee failed to reach any agreement this week. 

Ouch, till Yesterday there were dissensions between the Team-UPA and Team-Anna, now there are dissensions within Team-Anna!

Full Story at,

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Another-version-of-Lokpal-Bill-from-civil-society-to-be-released/Article1-710622.aspx

Lok Pal Bill: The discreet charm of civil society!

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Please Join us in India’s Anti-corruption Movement; Kindly sign “Save Lokpal Bill” @

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_jan_lokpal/?copy

P. SAINATH / the hindu.

Social Activist and Member of Lokpal Bill Committee, Anna Hazare, addresses a press conference in New Delhi. Photo: Shanker Chakravarty - The Hindu.

There is nothing wrong in having advisory groups. But there is a problem when groups not constituted legally cross the line of demands, advice and rights-based, democratic agitation.

The 1990s saw marketing whiz kids at the largest English daily in the world steal a term then in vogue among sexually discriminated minorities: PLUs — or People Like Us. Media content would henceforth be for People Like Us. This served advertisers' needs and also helped shut out unwanted content. As the daily advised its reporters: dying farmers don't buy newspapers. South Mumbaikars do. So the suicide deaths of a couple of fashion models in that city grabbed more space in days than those of over 40,000 farmers in Maharashtra did in a decade.

February 2011 saw one of the largest rallies staged in Delhi in years. Lakhs of workers from nine central trade unions — including the Congress party's INTUC — hit the streets to protest against rising food prices and unemployment. This was many times bigger than the very modest numbers at Anna Hazare's fast and larger than Ramdev's rollicking ‘yoga camp.' These were workers and unions not linked to the state. Not market-driven. Not corporate-funded. And expressing clearly the interests and values of their members. In fact, fitting some classic definitions of ‘civil society.' The rally was covered by the BBC, Reuters and AFP but was mostly invisible in mainstream Indian media except when attacked for creating traffic jams.

Perhaps the whizz kids were on to something larger than even they knew. At least one dictionary has since added this entry under People Like Us: “A subtle reference to people of the same socio-economic class.” Only, there was nothing subtle here. The Indian elite play the PLU game like few others do. Entry into the club is by birth or invitation only. And getting certification from the classes that matter takes some work. Your own background can be surmounted however, even turned to advantage, if there are enough strong PLUs around you. Anna Hazare had this. Baba Ramdev did not have it. Both claimed to speak for ‘civil society.' A media applying that word with reverence to those around Anna Hazare, denied it with scorn to those they saw as Ramdev's rabble.

Sections of the media embarrassed by Ramdev point, in contrast, to the ‘many fine people' around Hazare. Most of them part of the Delhi elite with indeed impeccable records of service. Yet, how did their approach differ in principle from Ramdev's?

Very deep Analysis of the the socalled 'Civil Society', which has been an misnomer all along; these are one of the many 'pressure groups', albeit vociferous and hence popular with media and the general public.  A good read for anyone who to see through the game of elite!

Full Article at,

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/sainath/article2110433.ece?homepage=true

Lok Pal Bill: Hazare-led activists react sharply to Pranab's remarks!

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New Delhi, Jun 13 (PTI)

Anna Hazare-led activists today reacted sharply Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for accusing the civil society of trying to undermine democracy and said his statement betrayed a ''distorted understanding of democracy and arrogance of power''.

The activists said Mukherjee's remarks show a "mistaken understanding" that the people have no role to play in governance and law-making once they have elected their representatives and they have formed a government.

The Government should understand that it is the product of the Civil Society and it is there to serve it.  It cannot dream to dissolve the Society for, it existed much before the Governments were created and shall outlive them.

Governments may come and go but the Civil Society shall go on for as long the human Society exists.  If, ever, it extincts, again,it would be on account of the faulty actions of the Governments only.

Full Story at,

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/168539/hazare-led-activists-react-sharply.html

Anti-Corruption Movement: Why they want a saviour!

Please Join us in India’s Anti-corruption Movement; Kindly sign “Save Lokpal Bill” @

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• June 7, 2011 / Columns / Deccan Chronicle.

Patralekha Chatterjee writes on development issues in India and emerging economies.

There is no getting away from Baba Ramdev.

Even in a Thai island, one is kept informed about the life and times of the fasting and furious yoga guru, a 46-year-old man with a flowing black beard in trademark saffron, who not only has a mass following — some 20 million-plus viewers in India tuning in to his early morning television show — but also wields control over a yoga and meditation network reportedly worth several billion rupees.

The local newspaper carries a six column report, with photograph, about how the Baba is making Indian politicians tremble. The report was written a few hours before the midnight crackdown on the Baba and his supporters at Delhi’s Ramlila Grounds — the “ground zero” of the yoga guru’s mass hunger strike against corruption.

With that act, the situation has only become more dramatic and charges of government high-handedness are flying thick and fast on cyberspace.

Sitting one space removed from the breathless saturation coverage of the Baba Ramdev saga in our media, two immediate questions come to mind. One, why are recent anti-corruption movements — first led by Mr Anna Hazare and now by Baba Ramdev — getting so much traction? Two, why is the government seemingly unable to gauge the level of support such movements will get?

Whatever, there was no need of giving a new name as 'Civil Society' to the Anti-Corruption Movement of private citizens.

Pressure Groups have always been in existence, throughout the history and across the Globe, where they fill the vacuum for the inertness of Autocratic, Insensitive and Lethargic Governments - elected or otherwise.

This gangrene of India, that is corruption at all levels and planes and the black-money stashed away abroad and in India needs to be cured, if we have to progress as a Society. 

Finally, as for those elite, who argue against government's giving in to the so-called black-mail of the unrest have never raised their voice against such core issues of our Nation Importance, as discussed above, hence needs to check their priorities.

Full Story at,

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/columnists/patralekha-chatterjee/why-they-want-saviour

Ramlila Drama: Civil society to boycott Lokpal panel meeting!

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PTI / The Hindu.

Social activist Anna Hazare meets an injured supporter of Baba Ramdev at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in New Delhi on Sunday. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar - The Hindu.

Agitated over the treatment meted out to Baba Ramdev, Anna Hazare-led civil society on Sunday announced a day-long nationwide hunger strike on Wednesday in protest and decided to boycott the meetings of Lokpal drafting committee in another showdown with the government.

Accusing the government of having suspicious intent with regard to dealing with corruption, Mr. Hazare said the civil society would defy prohibitory orders on Wednesday at Jantar Mantar to protest the police action against Baba Ramdev’s movement.

However, Mr. Hazare said he has “some issues” with the yoga guru and would not share the dais with him at Jantar Mantar.

I would rather put it this way, the nationwide hunger strike would be against the treatment meted  out to those innocent, sleeping citizens and against the usage of brutal force of tear-gas and Lathi charge, which fact Delhi police prefer to deny, despite the TV footages, from different channels.  Compared to that, our Flip-Flop Ramdev was let off very lightly and now safe and sound in Hardwar.

Full Story at,

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2079356.ece