New Delhi: The gulf between Team Anna and the government is widening with every passing day. Thursday saw both sides trading charges and blaming each other for the stalemate in separate press conferences.
"The government has gone back on its word," Anna Hazare said. "It does not have the political will to bring a strong Lokpal. We will have to go back to our fast unto death from August 16, as announced earlier." The 74-year-old Gandhian said his team was not scared of lathis or bullets since they had vowed to fight till the last breath.
The government hit back with Union ministers P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal and Salman Khurshid trying to punch holes in the charges of Team Anna, saying that the government could not allow the creation of a "parallel" structure.
"I doubt that there is any place in the world where fasting is a way to draft a bill," Chidambaram said. He added that many of the demands of the Hazare team could not be accepted because a structure parallel to the government cannot be allowed. "We are committed to finalising the draft by June 30. We are confident that at the end people will say it is a good anti-corruption law," he said.
Taking on Hazare's threat to go on fast again, Sibal said: You cannot threaten and negotiate at the same time... This is not the way forward."
Arvind Kejriwal, RTI activist, who was present at the Team Anna press meet, said the government had wasted a huge opportunity to frame a strong bill and take credit for it, he said. "What they are now bringing is not a Lokpal Bill, it is Jokepal Bill."
Chidambaram questioned the presumption of the members of Team Anna that they alone represent civil society. "The bill is complex, reducing it to binary choices is not right," he said. He also explained there were complexities involved. "No party commands a majority. What is desirable is different from what is feasible. Political processes need to be respected."
Kejriwal blasted ministers saying they do not want a strong bill because "half of them would go to jail if such a law is passed". "Who wants to write his suicide note?" he asked. On the issue of elected representatives, he said, "Is the prime minister elected? Is Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Alhuwalia elected? Who appointed him? Was there an advertisement for the post?"
But Salman Khursheed said, "We are not going to be diverted by slander and abuse." His colleague Sibal clarified that there would not be two versions of the bill's draft. "There are several areas of agreement. Where there is disagreement, we will provide the alternative in the same draft."