In a development that could help end the impasse on the Lokpal issue, the Indian government and the Opposition reached an agreement under which the Parliament will adopt a resolution incorporating three demands of Team Anna with a voice vote, the Press Trust of India news agency reported on Saturday.
The turnaround came when the Bharatiya Janata Party Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal announce at the Ramlila grounds that the government had conveyed to them the Opposition’s reluctance to vote on a resolution in the Parliament on the Lokpal issue.
National Democratic Alliance working president LK Advani, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her counterpart in the Rajya Sahba Arun Jaitley took the matter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The news agency reported that Mukherjee and Union Law Minister Salman Kurshid denied that the government had made any such charge. When the BJP insisted that in the changed circumstances, a resolution should be moved and put to a voice vote, the government agreed to it. Some young ministers and MPs from the Congress also insisted on a resolution and vote as they felt Team Anna will not settle for anything less.
It has been decided that the resolution will be moved by Mukherjee. The wording of the resolution was worked out with the Opposition. The resolution mentions all three demands of Anna Hazare, namely a Citizen’s Charter, Lokayukta in states and including lower bureaucracy under Lokpal’s ambit.
