A Day after Team Anna Hazare met the parliamentary standing committee, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) informally met here on Thursday. In the meeting, the leaders discussed and reviewed possible fall out of the proposed indefinite fast protest by the Gandhian social activist beginning from August 16.
Sources revealed that in the CCPA meeting, which was attended by all its members besides HRD minister Kapil Sibal, the leaders assessed the situation arising out of the proposed indefinite fast. “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh heard the views expressed by the members on the issue. It was felt that the government needed to engage media simultaneously to put forth its views on the subject steadfastly,” sources revealed.
Besides Mr Sibal, the other members who attended the meeting include PM Manmohan Singh, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, home minister P. Chidambram, defence minister A.K. Antony, external affairs minister S.M. Krishna, railways minister Dinesh Trivedi, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and renewable energy minister Farooq Abdullah.
After the meeting one of the ministers was heard saying: “Let us watch first how media reacts to Anna’s protest”, the government would respond accordingly.
Meanwhile, confronting Mr Hazare head on, the Congress also dared him to contest elections from those constituencies where his team has gone for survey in support of “Jan Lokpal bill”. Team Anna Hazare had conducted a survey in Candni Chowk constituency in Delhi, which represented by Mr Sibbal, and had announced results showing majority supported their version of the bill. Similarly, they have conducted a survey in Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s constituency, Amethi, and are all set to release the results.