Anna will not end fast till Lokpal includes all sticky issues

New Delhi, Aug 26 (PTI) Team Anna on Friday made it clear
that a mere discussion in Parliament will not serve any
purpose and the Gandhian will not call off his fast till
Parliament passes a resolution that the cleared Lokpal Bill
will include three contentious points raised by them.
"Mere discussion will not be enough," lawyer Prashant
Bhushan, a Team Anna member, told reporters here after a
meeting with CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat here.
He said Hazare had made it clear that he will break his
fast only if Parliament passes a resolution "adopting or
indicating clearly" that the Lokpal, which will be passed,
includes the three issues.
"Therefore, we need to see what Parliament does on this.
There is no point in just discussing it. We had discussed it
for the past 42 years and eight times it was introduced in
Parliament," Bhushan said.
Bhushan's remarks came as the government earlier said
that discussion on Jan Lokpal Bill as demanded by Hazare may
not be possible in Lok Sabha during the day. There were
reports that some MPs had given notice for discussion on
Lokpal issue under a section which does not entail voting.
Government sources last night said that a motion will be
brought to facilitate a combined discussion on the Lokpal
Bill, the Jan Lokpal Bill brought out by Hazare as also the
drafts prepared by activist Aruna Roy and Jai Prakash Narain.
He said there are rules under which the issue can be
discussed. "Every rule in Parliament can be waived by a
motion. If they want to discuss, they can do," he said.
Addressing protesters at Ramlila Maidan where Hazare is
sitting on a fast, another Team Anna member Kiran Bedi echoed
Bhushan's views and said Hazare will end the fast once
Parliament passes a resolution which includes three sticky
issues -- all civil servants should be brought under Lokpal, a
Citizen Charter should be displayed at all government offices
and all states should have Lokayukta.
Activist Medha Patkar, a member of the Core Committee of
Team Anna, said everything was going right till Thursday and
now the government was changing its stand.
"This is a big opportunity for UPA but if it wants to
commit suicide, let them," she told reporters.
She also criticised the choice of government mediators,
saying those appointed to talk to Hazare should have a clean
image.
"Government should appoint people with clean image as
mediators. (Law Minister) Salman Khurshid is fine.
(Maharashtra Chief Minister) Prithviraj Chavan is fine. But
one should not forget that Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is
accused of irregularities in Adarsh scam," she said.
Khurshid is one of the members of the government
negotiating team led by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee
which also has East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit as a member.
Deshmukh had met Hazare on Thursday as government stepped
up efforts to end the stand-off on the Lokpal Bill.