Anna's fast unreasonable now: Govt's current line

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came to the help of Anna Hazare who was shown the door by the political class of the country at the all party meeting.

The government is only too willing to provide him with the excuse to end the fast. The only priority now within the government is to ensure that he ends his fast on his own as it is not keen to pick him up and send him to hospital.

In keeping with Anna Hazare's suggestion which he made to Union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh whom he met on Thursday afternoon, he would be willing to end his fast if Parliament  begins discussion on the Lan Lokpal on Friday itself and considers it.

However, in evening his close aide Prashant Bhushan said that the veteran activist will end his fast only when Parliament passes the resolution.

The government immediately went into a huddle with Pranab Mukherjee and Pawan Bansal meeting the prime minister where it was decided that they would bring in a resolution in the House on Friday itself where the Jan Lokpal Bill would be discussed.

According to information available, the resolution is likely to be along the lines of a discussion on the situation arising in the
country due to the anti-corruption agitation and the intention of the government to bring in a strong and effective Lokpal Bill to curb corruption.

The discussion would revolve around the provisions of the Jan Lokpal Bill, the Aruna Roy Lokpal Bill and the Jaiprakash Narain Lokpal bill. All of them would be then sent to the standing committee for their consideration.

The government is also looking at how best to accommodate Hazare' demand for inclusion of the lower bureaucracy in the bill, the citizens charter and the setting up of state Lokpals.

Suggestions on this are also coming in from the Opposition as Parliament is now united against the manner in which Hazare and company are being adamant in their approach and not willing to adopt a reasonable point of view.

Sources said that senior opposition leaders, particularly in the Bharatiya Janata Party, have conveyed to Hazare that if he continues his fast now, it could become unproductive as support for him is dwindling.  

The brief for Hazare from the BJP leaders is "break the fast but continue the protest and the agitation" -- which seems to be the likely way forward for Hazare and company.

Sources say that the government made yet another mistake by not talking directly with Anna Hazare through a credible political functionary and instead talked to Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi who were in any case not interested in a 'compromise.'

It is learnt that in the meeting held on Wednesday night with Pranab Mukherjee, the finance minister angrily told Bedi and Kejriwal that if anything happens to Anna Hazare, he would personally hold both of them responsible for it.

Sources say that there was a great deal of unrest in the government over the provisions of the Jan Lokpal Bill. There is no doubt that Congress finds Jan Lokpal Bill "draconian, dictatorial and has the mindset of people who want to create another Gestapo in the country."

The government and the prime minister were clear that this could not be allowed at any cost with most political parties rejecting many of the formulations of Team Anna.

At the moment it looks like reasonable voices have been able to convince Anna Hazare to now end his fast and wait for the government to make the next move.

The fact that the PM issued a strong appeal from Parliament along with the entire House, appears to have also played a part in sending the message that the government is now looking reasonable while Hazare and his team are appearing
unreasonable.