Lokpal meet ends ‘cordially’, but no consensus in sight

Indications emerged today that the differences between the two sides on the committee drafting the anti-corruption lokpal bill – the government and 'civil society' members – may not be entirely irreconcilable.

After the eighth meeting of the joint drafting committee for the bill at the New Delhi office of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee who co-chairs the committee, telecom minister Kapil Sibal –who has emerged as the spokesman for the government's side – said ''80 to 85 per cent agreement'' has been reached between government and civil society members.

Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, part of the 'civil' side led by social activist Anna Hazare, extended a qualified agreement. "The differences are still persistent, but the atmosphere of the meeting was quite cordial," he said.

After the three-hour meeting that ended at 2:00 pm, Arvind Kejriwal, another legal expert and civil society member of the draft panel, said, "We have proposed a broad-based committee consisting of non-political and independent people in our draft of the proposed bill, while the government's version has mainly political people in the appointment committee.

"There were a lot of disagreements between both the sides, but all of them were discussed in an elaborate way."

Another meeting is scheduled on Tuesday. "Both the sides will place their versions of the draft before each other. The draft that will be presented to the cabinet will have points from both the drafts," said Bhushan.