All-party meet reiterates parliamentary supremacy, rejects 30 Aug deadline

7:39pm Govt makes new offers to Anna.Govt agrees to bring PM, CBI under the Lokpal ambit.

7.18pm Sushma Swaraj addressing media outside the Prime Minister’s residence, says it is the view of the BJP that the Lokpal must be passed and Anna must end his fast. Swaraj confirms there was no consensus at the all party meet. Instead of amending the old version of the government bill, we have asked that a new bill be passed. I am not happy. Arvind Kejriwal commented if anything happens to Anna Hazare, government will be held responsible.

7.13pm Sitaram Yechury addressing media says that CPIM has demanded that the govt bill must be withdrawn and a new bill brought forward incorporating important points from Jan Lokpal and other bills. He added that a new version of the bill could not be brought in, unless the old one was withdrawn. No Lokpal bill can be passed in this session.

7.07pm Nine parties including the Left, TDP and AIADMK have asked the government to withdraw its bill and present a new one.

6.43pm Prime Minister calls Anna’s medical team for an update on his health.

6.30pm Joint statement from all party meet says supremacy of parliament and parliamentary procedure cannot be compromised. There is some disagreement with certain clauses within the Jan Lokpal bill. Some leaders are still inside the Prime Minister’s residence. The parties have also refused to abide by Team Anna’s August 30 deadline.

6.10pm All party meeting on Lokpal ends. Initial reports say that there is a unanimous decision to send the Jan Lokpal to a parliamentary standing committee and there has also been a collective call to Anna to end his fast. No consensus on how the government should act from this point. The Jan Lokpal has already been forwarded to the Parliamentary standing committee.

5.00pm Anna Hazare has said that he will not call off his fast. “I have fasted for 9 days and I can fast for 9 more”, he said. Hazare added that that the Jan Lokpal would empower the people and decentralize power. He ended by saying “God is with us”

4.40pm Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his opening statement at the all party meet reiterated his concern about Anna Hazare’s health and his decision to continue with his fast. The Prime Minister outlined the current status of talks between the two sides. “Broadly their position is that (a) the Government should withdraw the Bill introduced in Parliament (b) the Jan Lokpal Bill should be introduced with some changes in Parliament within four days and (c) this Bill should be discussed and passed during this session of Parliament by extending it if necessary, with minor amendments adopted by Parliament, and without referring the Bill to the Standing Committee.  If a written commitment can be given with timelines, then the representatives said they can hopefully persuade Annaji to stop his fast. I will ask Pranabji to brief us later in more detail on what transpired in the meeting”, he said.  The Prime Minister added that the government would like the Standing Committee to consider all points of view to evolve a broad based national consensus to create a strong institution of the Lokpal. ( Read More )

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, supporting Lokpal, said that the corruption in the country has compelled Anna Hazare to fast. Although he does not see the movement as political, he said he is not sure of what lies ahead. Appealing to politicians to bring out a quick solution, the Yoga guru signed off saying he hopes Hazare ends his fast today.

3.49pm The all party meet to discuss the latest government version of the Lokpal bill has commenced at the Prime Minister’s residence at Racecourse road.

3:24pm Anna supporters hold protests in front of PM’s residence while reports say Govt is looking for political consensus to resolve the Anna crisis. Meanwhile Bal Thackerary has written to Anna Hazare, pledging his support to the cause and asking him to call off his fast.

3.00pm Latest reports suggest that another draft of the Lokpal has been finalized after a meeting between Salman Khurshid and members of Team Anna. The draft was taken to Mukherjee for further tweaking, and team Anna has relented on its demand that the standing committee be bypassed.

2.30pm Finalised draft - Prime Minister to make a final call.

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2.13pm Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal due to address the crowds at Ramlila Maidan and apprise them of their talks with the government.

2.04pm Latest reports state that the latest government Lokpal draft has been taken to Mukherjee to see if other demands made by team Anna can be incorporated and if the draft can be tweaked further.

1:45 pm The final Lokpal draft taken to Pranab Mukherjee. Salman Khurshid meets Mukherjee at North block.

1.27pm 3 hour Meeting between Team Anna and Salman Khurshid ends. Prashant Bhushan makes a statement that the stalemate between the two sides still stand. He said, “talks are on but there is no outcome yet”. The new government draft of the Lokpal had been shared with team Anna, and Prashant Bhushan had said that they would get back to the government after updating Hazare. Sources inside the meeting had said that the government was not opposed to the idea of giving a written assurance, but that the assurance would not be a government assurance, but one that would be made after sensing the mood at the All Party meeting. The finalised Lokpal draft will be circulated at the All Party meeting.

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1.20pm Left parties say they do not support Jan Lokpal completely.

12.50pm Salman Khurshid stresses that stopping Anna’s fast is more urgent than the passage of the Lokpal bill.

12.39pm Arun Jaitley in the Rajya Sabha has asked the government to raise the bar for accountability and called for introspection by all parties. He said corruption has become part and parcel of daily life - from taxes, municipality, rationing and licensing - it has become an accepted norm for a corrupt practice to become the route by which to get work done. Jaitley said the media is responsible for shaping the human mind - and therefore even paid news was a form of corruption. He also said the CBI was corrupt, saying that CBI affidavits changed depending on which party was in power.

12.30pm Murli Manohar Joshi speaking in the Lok Sabha said that people paid a sum amounting to Rs 21680 crores in bribes each year. He added that ordinary citizens had lost faith in the government over the last four years because of the scale of corruption. The Satyam scam in 2009, Hasan Ali, Illegal mining, 2010:IPL scam, 2G scam, CWG scam, adarsh housing society scam and Radia tapes controversy had all contributed. He added that the protests against corruption were a warning and called on the government to act, pledging the support of the BJP if the government acted honestly in this regard. ( read more )

12.15 pm Team Anna member Kiran Bedi has said another round of talks are taking place between Salman Khurshid and members of Team Anna. Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and Bedi left for Khurshid’s residence a short while ago.

12.00pm Yashwant Sinha offered to resign at a BJP parliamentary meeting held to discuss the party strategy ahead of all party talks to discuss the Lokpal this afternoon. Sinha said that the BJP did not have a strong enough stand on corruption, and said he would resign unless this was not strengthened. The All party meeting is due to get underway at 3.30pm this afternoon, and the new draft of the Lokpal is expected to be circulated amongst all attendees. The Prime Minister is reportedly scheduled to speak first. ( read more )

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Anna Hazare made an appearance on stage at the Ramlila Maidan before addressing the crowds, and insisting that he would f fight until his dying breath . Meanwhile Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a second appeal to Anna, asking him to consent to taking a drip.

Shortly before Anna’s appearance on stage, Kiran Bedi reached out to supporters and asked them to pray for Anna’s health as spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar joined Hazare at Ramlila Maidan. Speaking to the media, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said that the government was creating a conducive atmosphere for talks.

Apart from spiritual leaders many political leaders also joined Anna at Ramlila this morning.

BJP MP Varun Gandhi, who wanted to introduce the Jan Lokpal Bill as a private bill in Parliament, and Aruna Roy, member of National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI), also met Anna this morning.

“The entire nation is here. Sikh, Hindu Muslims and Christians are all here supporting Anna’s cause. " She assured supporters that Anna’s health is fine and he is awaiting government’s written approval on the Lokpal Bill issue before ending his indefinite fast which entered the ninth day today.

Government and Team Anna held discussions for the first time last night and both sides agreed on a variety of issues leading to hopes of Hazare ending the fast.

“Anna will read every word of the written agreement when it comes. Rest assured he is not going to take any chances at all. Today is crucial. His health as well as government giving a written commitment for tabling and passing in current session the Jan Lokpal is important,” activist Kiran Bedi said.

Meanwhile, Hazare refused to be put on a intravenous drip despite doctors advising him to do so once again this morning, his close associate said.“Anna has refused to take the IV drip after doctors advised him to take it following a check up this morning,” activist Manish Sisodia told reporters here.

He has lost another 200 grams in the past 24 hours with his weight settling at 66.2 kg. He was 72 kg before he began his fast on August 16 His blood pressure was recorded at 104/86 while blood sugar was 106 and pulse rate 82.

“Prayers have miraculous powers. Pray for Anna’s health. The written commitment is yet to come, " said Bedi in a tweet adding that " your prayers are working. We pray the govt respects time. Anna awaits their written commitment.

Team Anna claimed that three issues still remain the sticking point as there were no agreement on citizen’s charter, inclusion of lower bureaucracy and setting up of Lokayukta in state through Lokpal. There were indications that government might consider bringing the Prime Minister under the ambit of the anti-corruption ombudsman while differences persisted on other key issues during the inconclusive talks.

Last night’s negotiations capped a day of fast-moving developments which saw Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appoint Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as the negotiator and immediately thereafter three members of Hazare’s team met him.

After three hours of talks, Team Anna said they made it clear to the government that the official Lokpal Bill should either be withdrawn or allowed to lapse and the Jan Lokpal Bill should be introduced and passed in the current session of Parliament by extending it, if necessary.

Hazare yesterday disregarded doctor’s advice to be put on Intravenous (IV) drip and refused to take any medicine while warning the government against trying to forcibly evict him from the protest site of Ramlila Maidan here.

Team Anna has also rejected the Prime Minister’s offer to send the Jan Lokpal Bill to the Parliamentary Standing Committee. “We have told them that it is not acceptable,” Arvind Kejriwal, a top associate of Hazare, said yesterday.

The talks followed the Prime Minister’s letter to Hazare in which he appealed to him to end the fast saying he and the government have “abiding interest” in his health.

The Prime Minister’s initiative saw Law Minister Salman Khurshid meeting Kejriwal at a flat near East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit’s residence where it was conveyed that Mukherjee would negotiate with Hazare’s team.

Kejriwal said that during the discussions with Mukherjee it was conveyed that the basic principles of the Jan Lokpal Bill should be preserved and the Law Ministry should vet the draft in two-three days and get back to them.

“The Congress, UPA and the government should give a commitment that it will support the Bill and get it passed in this session itself, if required by extending it by two-three days,” Kejriwal said.

Prashant Bhushan, another Hazare associate, said the government appeared to have no objection to bringing the Prime Minister under the ambit of Lokpal, while on judges, the government promised they will bring a separate law and “show it to us”.

The civil society representatives claimed government has agreed that the anti-corruption wing of CBI will be under Lokpal and the corrupt acts of members of Parliament will be covered by the ombudsman even if it was in pursuance of a vote cast or speech made in Parliament which is now protected under Article 105.

With inputs from agencies