Team Anna calls for 'Dilli chalo' march from Saturday

New Delhi, Aug 25 (PTI) Team Anna Hazare on Thursday gave
a call to the people to peacefully march towards the national
capital from Saturday if the government fails to resolve the
Lokpal issue.
Arvind Kejriwal, core member of Hazare's team, also
appealed to people here to hold a protest outside the 7, Race
Course Road official residence of the Indian Prime Minister
demanding tabling of Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament.
He asked the Prime Minister why he is not doing anything
about the Jan Lokpal Bill.
"By Saturday, if there is no solution, we will appeal to
the people for 'Dilli chalo'. People should come in large
numbers and sit here till the government finds solution to the
issue, if it doesn't introduce the 'Jan Lokpal bill' in
Parliament they should not leave till it is resolved," he
told reporters after a meeting of the team's core committee.
The meeting also discussed last night's talks between
civil society and government representatives that ended in a
deadlock.
Team Anna reaffirmed that they are ready for talks with
the government, but insisted that government should give in
writing its intentions before the next rounds of talks.
"The government should give in writing their intentions
and what they want. We will deliberate on their written
statement and respond to it once consensus is reached among
us. Then we will go for talks," he said.
The RTI activist said Team Anna will talk to political
parties to seek consensus on the issue.
"We are going to start talking to other political parties
today. We are seeking their time as we have to come to know
through newspapers that they may have reservations with some
points. We will meet them to resolve these doubts and issues,"
he said.
The civil rights activist also called for peaceful
protest outside the Prime Minister's residence later in the
evening on Thursday.
Noting that Verma's letter mentions that the rule of law
is the bedrock of democracy, the Prime Minister said "I cannot
agree more except to say that our great Constitution has
served this country very well through difficult times and we
should do nothing that in any way undermines the parliamentary
democracy of which the country is so proud."
Agreeing that in an inclusive democracy every section of
civil society has a participative role in governance,
including that of policy making, Singh said he has no
difference with Verma's proposal that the views of the entire
civil society must be presented along with the government
draft of the Lokpal Bill to the Parliament for consideration.
"However, Anna Hazare ji and his supporters insist that
the Jan Lokpal Bill, which perhaps reflects one section of
views, must be passed in this session of Parliament itself and
without referring it to the Standing Committee," Singh added.
Maintaining that he was as "pained" as Verma at the
corruption faced by the citizens in many of their dealings
with the Government, he said the country is agreed on the
necessity and urgency of remedial action to curb corruption.
"It is a complex problem and we have to act on a number
of fronts. The Right to Information Act was one such landmark
measure that we took and it has had a salutary effect. But
much more needs to be done and the problem has to be tackled
from different angles and at different levels," Singh said in
the letter on Wednesday, a day after he wrote to Hazare
requesting him to end his fast.
The Prime Minister also agreed that Hazare has rendered a
great public service by mobilizing public opinion against
corruption.
Singh in his letter to Hazare on August 23 had reiterated
Government's intention to pass the best possible Lokpal
legislation with inputs from civil society and on the basis of
the broadest possible consensus.
"I said that the matter was with the Standing Committee
and that the Committee was entitled to consider not only the
Bill introduced by the Government but the Jan Lokpal Bill and
other versions like those prepared by Aruna Roy as well.
"....I also said that the Government can formally request
the Standing Committee to fast-track its deliberations to the
extent reasonably feasible, subject to its discretion and the
necessity to reflect deeply and spend adequate time on such an
important Bill.