Campaign for the Jan Lokpal Bill Jan Lokpal Bill

1 campaign jan lokpal bill

1.1 fast & agitation – phase 1
1.2 lokpal round table dr.jayaprakashnarayan of loksatta fdr (foundation democratic reforms)
1.3 drafting committee
1.4 fast & agitation – phase 2
1.5 notable supporters , opposition
1.6 logjam of lokpal , lokayukta bill 2011

campaign jan lokpal bill

lokpal activist – anna hazare

the first version of lokpal bill drafted government of india headed united progressive alliance in 2010 considered ineffective anti-corruption activists civil society. these activists, under banner of iac, came draft citizen s version of lokpal bill later called jan lokpal. public awareness drives , protest marches carried out campaign bill. however, public support jan lokpal bill draft started gathering steam after anna hazare, gandhian announced hold indefinite fast 5 april 2011 passing of lokpal/ jan lokpal bill. government has accepted it.

to dissuade hazare going on indefinite hunger strike, office of prime minister directed personnel , law ministries see how views of social activists can included in bill. on 5 april, national advisory council rejected lokpal bill drafted government. union human resource development minister kapil sibal met social activists swami agnivesh , arvind kejriwal on 7 april find ways bridge differences on bill. however, no consensus reached on 7 april owing several differences of opinion between social activists , government.

fast & agitation – phase 1

on 7 april 2011 anna hazare called jailemands. anna hazare claimed group had received 6 crore (60 million) text messages of support , had further backing large number of internet activists. outpouring of support largely free of political overtones; political parties discouraged participating in movement. fast ended on 9 april, after 98 hours, when government accepted demands due public pressure. anna hazare set deadline, 15 august, passing of bill in parliament, failing start hunger strike 16 august. fast led government of india agreeing set joint drafting committee, complete work 30 june 2011.

lokpal round table dr.jayaprakashnarayan of loksatta fdr (foundation democratic reforms)


lokpal bill round table conference – jayaprakash narayan (lok satta)

foundation of democratic reforms led dr.jayaprakashnarayan of loksatta has organised round table conference on 24 april. list of attendees.

drafting committee

the drafting committee officially formed on 8 april 2011. consisted of following ten members, including 5 government , 5 drawn civil society. former minister of law , justice part of drafting committee.

the government s handling of formation of draft committee, involving civil society in preparation of draft lokpal bill, criticised various political parties including bharatiya janata party, biju janata dal, telugu desam party, india anna dravida munnetra kazhagam, communist party of india, rashtriya janata dal, janata dal (u) , samajwadi party.

the committee failed agree on terms of compromise bill , government introduced own version of bill in parliament in august 2011.

fast & agitation – phase 2

hindi sign @ ramlila grounds: eat live, live eat, not receive clean drinking water, yet drink our blood

according anna , team, government s version of lokpal bill weak , facilitate corrupt go free apart several other differences. protest against this, anna hazare announced indefinite fast (not confused fast until death ). anna , team asked permission delhi police fast , agitation @ jantar mantar or jp park. delhi police gave permission conditions. these conditions considered team anna restrictive , against fundamental constitutional rights , decided defy conditions. delhi police imposed sec 144 crpc.

on 16 august, anna hazare taken preventive custody delhi police. senior officers of delhi police reached anna hazare s flat in morning , informed him not leave home. however, hazare turned down request following detained.anna in recorded address nation before arrest asked supporters not stop agitation , urged protesters remain peaceful.other members of iac – arvind kejriwal, kiran bedi, kumar vishwas , manish sisodia – taken preventive custody. kiran bedi described situation resembling kind of emergency (referring state of emergency imposed in 1975 indira gandhi govt.). arrest resulted in huge public outcry , under pressure, government released him in evening of 16 august. however, anna hazare refused come out of jail, starting indefinite fast jail itself. manish sisodia explained situation as, anna said left home go jp park conduct fast , go here (tihar jail). has refused released till given written, unconditional permission . unwilling use forces owing sensitive nature of case, jail authorities had no option let anna spend night inside tihar. later on 17 august, delhi police permitted anna hazare , team use ramlila maidan proposed fast , agitation, withdrawing of contentious provisions had imposed earlier. indefinite fast , agitation began in ramlila maidan, new delhi, , went on around 288 hours (12 days 16 august-2011 28 august-2011). of lokpal drafting committee members became dissatisfied hazare s tactics hunger strike went on 11th day: santosh hegde, member of hazare team headed karnataka lokayukta, criticised hazare insistence of having way , concluding feel not in team anna more way things going. these (telling parliament do) not democratic things. swami agnivesh, central figure in hazare group distanced himself.

notable supporters , opposition

in addition activists responsible creating , organising support bill, wide variety of other notable individuals have stated support bill. spiritual leaders sri sri ravi shankar , yog guru ramdev expressed support. notable politicians indicated support bill include ajit singh , manpreet singh badal principal opposition party, bharatiya janta party. in addition, numerous bollywood actors, directors, , musicians publicly approved of bill.

notable opposition activists version of bill expressed hrd minister kapil sibal , other congress leaders; chief minister of west bengal mamata banerjee; punjab chief minister , akali dal leader prakash singh badal; shiv sena leader bal thackeray, , former chief justice of supreme court jagdish sharan verma. although bharatiya janata party (bjp) showed support earlier, there reports bjp shared congress s concern on letting civil society gain upper hand on parliament in lawmaking . all-india confederation of sc/st organisations, representing dalits , backward castes, expressed opposition bill proposed anna hazare government s version of bill. confederation opposed hazare s proposed bill saying above constitution , proposers of bill have support elements oppose reservation.

logjam of lokpal , lokayukta bill 2011

on 27 december 2011, lok sabha parliament winter session passed controversial lokpal bill under title of lokpal , lokayukta bill 2011, without constitutional status. before passing bill introduced in lok sabha key amendments moved. 10-hour house debate, number of opposition parties claimed introduced bill weak , wanted withdrawn. key amendments discussed defeated following:

including corporates, media , ngos receiving donations
bringing cbi under purview of lokpal

amendments house agreed upon were:

keeping defence forces , coast guard personnel out of purview of anti-graft ombudsman
increasing exemption time of former mps 5 7 years

team anna rejected proposed bill describing anti-people , dangerous before lok sabha gave assent. key notes team anna made rejection were:

government have control on lokpal have powers appoint , remove members @ will.
only 10 per cent political leaders covered bill
bill covering temples, mosques , churches
bill offering favour corruption accused offering them free lawyer service.
bill unclear handling corruption within lokpal office.
only 5 per cent of employees in ambit, class c & d officers not included.

team anna disappointed on following inherent exclusions within tabled government bill.

central bureau of investigation (cbi) should merged lokpal, , anti-corruption bureaus , vigilance departments of state governments lokayuktas.
the lokpal , lokayuktas should have own investigative wings exclusive jurisdiction on cases filed under prevention of corruption act.
the lokpal should have administrative , financial control on cbi, , appointment of cbi director should independent of political control.
the jurisdiction of lokpal , lokayukta should cover class c , d officers directly.

this bill presented in rajya sabha hit log jam again.