Forget mouse,Lokpal Bill can trap even a lion: Anna

Hazares snub to Kejriwal came on a day the government reaffirmed its commitment to passing the Bill.

Former IPS officer Kiran Bedi,who had also launched an attack on Kejriwal,advised him that instead of disowning the Lokpal Bill,he should come forward and take credit for it.

She said she did not have anything against Kejriwal. What I said yesterday was only in retaliation after he alleged that some people were misleading Anna. To say that we are misleading Anna is a very bad insinuation. It conveys that we are also ignorant and Anna is also ignorant, she said. How this fast is different from last time is that in Delhi,Anna would speak for a few minutes and then Team Anna would take over. Here it is Annas show entirely makes me think that maybe they Kejriwal and company did not spend enough time with him. Because they may have functioned like that and are now accusing us of misguiding Anna.

Bedi also said that the fast has affected Annas kidneys and if it continued for two more days,it would have serious repercussions on the 75-year-olds health. Doctors said Anna had lost 4.3 kg since he started fasting and was feeling considerably weak.

While the three-member committee comprising Anna,Bedi and social activist Vishwambhar Chaudhry has decided to accept for the time being the Bill,nobody is willing to accept that Kejriwals debut in the Delhi Assembly polls has anything to do with the sudden decision to adopt the report that has been in the public domain for a while now.

Bedi claims the decision had been in the works since the time the report was tabled on November 23,2012.

But the two main sticking points that remain are the issue of transfer postings of investigation officers probing cases referred by the Lokpal which would remain the domain of the government and the requirement of government sanction before starting inquiry against an officer. These are reasonable issues that can be sorted out. But overall,this is a much better Bill than what was tabled in the Lok Sabha in 2011, Bedi said.

AAP meanwhile came out with an analysis of the revised Lokpal draft and the Janlokpal Bill,raising the red flag on eight major points.

with PTI inputs