PMO regrets Anna Hazare decision for hunger strike on Lok Pal Bill

The Prime Minister’s Office expressed disappointment over noted social activist Anna Hazare’s plan to go ahead with his proposed hunger strike on the Lok Pal Bill issue.

In a statement issued this evening, hours before Hazare plans to start his fast unto death, the PMO said Hazare had accepted the Prime Minister’s offer to form a sub-committee for talking to social activists on the bill.

“Shri Hazare and his group had presented the Prime Minister a draft of their proposal on a Lokpal. The Prime Minister offered and the group accepted a suggestion that a sub-committee of the Group of Ministers (GoM) could interact and discuss the draft with the civil society activists,” said the PMO release. Sources in the government said there was still a lot of scope for discussion on the Lok Pal Bill and social activists were welcome to present their views to the government.

Narrating details of the meeting, the release said: “Hazare and his colleagues had met the Prime Minister, the law minister and other senior officials on March 7. During the discussion that lasted more than one hour, the Prime Minister had told the group that he ‘appreciates and shares your concern on corruption’.”

It also said the GoM sub-committee on tackling corruption, headed by defence minister A K Antony, later met Hazare’s colleagues but the interaction proved futile, as the activists were insisting on the government accepting their draft entirely.

However, Arvind Kejriwal, part of the campaign against corruption started by Hazare called India Against Corruption, said this was not true. “Hazare has not said that the draft made by us be accepted totally. All he asked for was to create a legitimate platform or a joint committee which would have equal representation from government and civil society. But, instead, the Government has proposed a GoM with people who are not identified with integrity in public life. Kapil Sibal is a minister who cannot see anything wrong with 2G (telecom spectrum allocation) and he is going to talk about an anti-corruption Bill? Is it a joke being played on the people of this country?” he asked.

Government sources also said that even as the defence minister was very keen to hold direct talks with Hazare, the noted social activist opted to remain absent and instead sent his representatives to the meeting. “The Prime Minister has enormous respect for Shri Hazare and his mission,” the PMO statement said.