Meeting with BJP 'good, fruitful': Hazare

New Delhi, July 1 (PTI) Civil society activist Anna Hazare
Friday held a meeting with Bhartiya Janta Party(BJP) top brass
to discuss his draft of the Lokpal Bill after which he said
there was a consensus between his team and the party over
formation of a strong and effective Lokpal(Ombudsman).
Hazare, who held the one-and-a-half hour meeting at
India's principal opposition party BJP headquarters here, said
the talks were "good and fruitful".
"In our discussions, the drafts of the Jan Lokpal
Bill(Citizens' Ombudsman Bill) and the government draft were
discussed. It was felt that there is a need for more debate
for a strong Lokpal Bill.
"We have requested the BJP that when the Bill comes up in
Parliament its leaders like Arun Jaitley, Advani and Sushma
Swaraj should argue strongly for it and they have agreed,"
Hazare said.
He said, "We have got a good guidance (from BJP) on how
this Bill should be. The talks were good and fruitful."
Hazare was accompanied by civil society activists Arvind
Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi.
The BJP team comprised of L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun
Jaitley, M M Joshi, Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, M Venkaiah
Naidu, S S Ahluwalia, Ananth Kumar, Ramlal and Ravi Shankar
Prasad.
Both the sides maintained that the issue of bringing the
Prime Minister within the ambit of the Lokpal was not
discussed.
The main concern voiced by the Opposition while agreeing
on the need for a Lokpal was that persons with a clean image
should be appointed.
The questions raised by BJP were also about Constitutional
immunity to the MPs in Parliament as ensured in Article 105.
"We heard Anna Hazare and his team and gave them all
respect. We sought some clarifications. We have assured them
that we want an effective Lokpal. We will form an opinion on
the issue after holding a party meeting and talking to the
NDA," Prasad, who is chief spokesperson of the BJP, said. PTI
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