By IANS,
New Delhi : Concerned over the groundswell of protests, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday stepped in to attempt a breakthrough in the stand-off with anti-corruption crusaders by holding back-to-back meetings with Congress leaders and ministers, apart from apprising President Pratibha Patil of the developments.
Manmohan Singh, who first met Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmad Patel, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal in the morning, held another round of political deliberations with senior ministers of his government in the afternoon, even as social activist Anna Hazare, who is on a fast-unto-death since April 5, called for a nationwide court arrest protest beginning April 13.
The prime minister’s second round of meeting at his residence was attended by Pranab Mukherjee, Kapil Sibal, Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily.
Between these meetings, Manmohan Singh also visited Rashtrapati Bhavan to meet the president for 35 minutes, when he explained to her that all efforts were being made to break the impasse.
His intervention was necessitated after Kapil Sibal’s talks with Anna Hazare’s emissaries Swami Agnivesh and Arvind Kejriwal in the morning failed and the minister announced the government’s decision to reject two major demands of the social activist — to issue notification on setting up of the committee and to appoint former chief justice of India J.S. Verma or former Supreme Court judge Santosh Hegde as the panel chairman.
Kapil Sibal also told reporters that if the 72-year-old social activist insisted on a member of the civil society heading the panel, then ministers would not be part of it, but the government may consider nominating some bureaucrats as its members.
Sibal held two rounds of talks with Anna Hazare’s emissaries.
Anna Hazare earlier wrote to Manmohan Singh, reiterating his demand for a non-political personality to head the committee that will draft the Lokpal Bill and for a government notification on the constitution of the panel.