With House panel in no mood to buy maximalism, Team Anna may end up losers

The deliberations on the Lokpal Bill are in the business end. For a change, there’s no acrimonious exchange of words, no television tamasha and no hyperventilating of egos and emotions for public consumption surrounding the discussions. It’s a welcome sign. It shows that all the stakeholders are capable of mature behaviour. That the Lokpal Bill has come before the standing committee and being discussed threadbare is a tribute to the efforts of Team Anna — for 42 years, the watchdog institution to combat corruption stayed buried in political indifference and apathy; Team Anna’s movement has brought it into full public glare. However, there are indications that its expectations might not be fulfilled. [caption id=“attachment_132736” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The team had sought that the entire judiciary, especially the lower judiciary, be brought under the ombudsman. PTI”]  [/caption] The standing committee, which has been busy mixing, matching and weighing options to balance the maximalist position of Team Anna and the minimalist stand of the government, has decided to put grade A and B officials under the Lokpal. Team Anna had demanded that the entire bureaucracy — down to grade D — be brought in the purview of the ombudsman while the government’s bill had sought to have only grade A officials. Conceding one of the major demands of Team Anna, the standing committee has decided to provide for Lokayuktas in the states under the same central Lokpal Act — the government was opposed to this. However, it has kept the judiciary out of the purview of  Lokpal. The government had argued that there was no need for it since corruption in the judiciary would be covered under the Judicial Accountability Bill. Anna’s team had sought that the entire judiciary, especially the lower judiciary, be brought under the ombudsman. According to the Indian Express, the standing committee has apparently formulated a “five-stage mechanism that separates investigation from prosecution, and maintains equilibrium in the holy trinity of CBI, CVC and the proposed Lokpal.” Team Anna wanted the CBI to be under the Lokpal while the government’s bill provided for a separate investigation wing under the Lokpal. The committee seems to have decided not to concede Team Anna’s demand. The five-stage mechanism, according to the Express report, was proposed by Singhvi. In the first stage, a compaint must be received by the Lokpal who, in the next stage, would hold a preliminary enquiry. If a case is made out, it would be referred, in the third stage, to CBI, which will investigate independently of the Lokpal or ministries.In the fourth stage, the case would go to the Directorate of Public Prosecution, to be placed under the Lokpal. In the last stage, the case would go to a special judge, says the report. The final shape of the Bill prepared by the standing committee is still not clear. But the development so far may not give reason for Team Anna to celebrate. Its Jan Lokpal Bill was far more drastic than all the draft bills, including that of activist Aruna Roy, the government and activist Jaiprakash Narayan, submitted before the parlimentary committee. It wanted overarching pan-Indian powers for the Lokpal, which many feared would result in the creation of a massive parallel bureaucracy besides undermining other constitutional institutions like the Supreme Court and Parliament itself. Arvind Kejriwal, one of the leading members of the team is apprehensive of the new bill already. He said he would appeal to the standing committee to reconsider their decision to keep group ‘C’ and group ‘D’ officials out. “Where would a poor person, whose ration has been siphoned off, go? Almost Rs 30,000 crore worth of rations are siphoned off every year… It is Group C and Group D officials who are involved in it,” he told the media. He also said that the committee must think seriously about bringing judges under the Lokpal since graft cases involving judges are out of the judicial accountability bill. If the standing committee goes ahead with the bill in its present shape and the government presents it in the house, Team Anna would end up looking the losing side. None of its important demands have been accepted fully so far. And the government seems to be having its way slowly and steadily. But for the moment, it would prefer to wait for the final bill.