[1]Team Anna on Tuesday said a presentation on both the versions of the Lokpal Bill would be made before representatives of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) July 1 in an attempt to gather support for their draft.
Civil society leader Kiran Bedi told a news channel that they had been invited by BJP leader L.K. Advani and would be meeting him July 1. Five civil society representatives, led by Gandhian Anna Hazare, and an equal number of senior Union ministers worked jointly over the past two months to draft a Lokpal Bill.
“Team Advani has invited Team Anna to make a presentation of the Jan Lokpal Bill July 1. We would be meeting them and not be shying away, undermining or overtaking anything,” Bedi said.
“We’ll present the Jan Lokpal Bill and the government proposition clause by clause and leave it to them to form their opinion,” she added. Santosh Hegde, member of the Drafting Committee, added that the civil society members were trying to meet political parties to explain their stand.
“We are trying to meet political parties and explaining to them our stand, so that the parties would not be misled by the presentation of the government,” Hegde said. Cautioning the government against giving more weightage to their own version of the bill, Hegde said such type of behaviour will only result in protests from the civil society members.
“If the government is going to indulge in these type of activities, I think we will have to protest against that,” he added.
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[1] http://archive.asianage.com/anna-hazare-060411-copyjpg-964