Back to drawing board?

Stand-off between government and Team Anna reached a flashpoint on Wednesday with talks yielding no breakthrough

It took everyone by surprise. Talks between government and Team Anna ended in a deadlock on Wednesday night with the two sides failing to resolve the key issues. Civil society activists went on to declare that they were "back to square one".

"There has been a change of attitude. The kind of concern they were expressing yesterday was not visible today. It is totally retrograde," Team Anna member Kiran Bedi told reporters after a meeting with government negotiators.

Accusing the government of involving them only "for the sake of meetings", Bedi said they have gone back to the drafting stage."The agreement on procedure which appeared reached yesterday has been withdrawn by them," Arvind Kejriwal said.

So near, yet so far
As the meeting drew close and it was clear that there was no immediate agreement, Kejriwal claimed that they asked ministers Pranab Mukherjee and Salman Khurshid whether the government was contemplating any police action against Hazare.

"We also asked him whether they are going to take any police action against them. They got infuriated and told us not to raise such issues. Then they said they were not competent to answer this question," he said.
Kejriwal said they also sought an answer from the ministers on what should they tell Hazare as he has maintained that he will not end his fast till his demands were met.

"When we asked what we should tell Anna Hazare as he will not end his fast, they said 'let him do whatever he does. If Anna wants to continue with his fast, it is his wish'," he said. He said the government clearly told them that Jan Lokpal Bill cannot be introduced in Parliament and a new bill has to be drafted and accused the government of having pulled back from the consensus arrived at Tuesday's meeting.

Where to go now?
"Yesterday it appeared that the government or rather the ministers who were talking to us said that this would sympathetically consider. But today we have been told that the parliamentary procedures like standing committee etc could not be short-circuited. Some timeline can still be adhered to," Prashant Bhushan said.
In a confirmation that parliamentary procedures cannot be short-circuited, a point underlined by major political parties, Mukherjee said after the meeting that the government had hoped that parliamentary process will be allowed to complete its exercise and make recommendations on Jan Lokpal Bill for its adoption.

Referring to recommendations of the all-party meeting that due consideration should be given to Jan Lokpal Bill so that the final draft provides for a "strong and effective" Lokpal, he said the government is committed to implementing the spirit of the decision.

Meanwhile a Delhi police official, on the condition of anonymity, told MiD DAY that there was a possibility that the department could have picked up Anna Hazare from the site, but the report was leaked into the media and the plan was apparently abandoned.