NEW DELHI: After sea of people gathered at Ramlila ground here,
where Anna Hazare is on an indefinite fast, the government took its
first awkward little steps for a dialogue with the civil society
leaders.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh broke the pattern
of official denials of any scope for any modification in the government
Lokpal Bill by offering dialogue and discussions on the draft law.
He
said while there was scope for "give and take", it might not be
possible to meet Anna’s three-week deadline for passing the bill.
Team
Anna’s Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan appeared to be responding
to this when they said at a press conference that Anna’s deadline was
not a threat but only "an expression of his fundamental right to
express his opinion".
The two also added they were open to dialogue but no one from the government had approached them so far.
While
it’s difficult to say whether these overtures would lead to meaningful
talks, there was growing appreciation in the government of the fact
that the anti-corruption movement was steadily gaining popularity and
there was need for an urgent political response to it, especially as
Anna’s fast had already crossed 110 hours (five days).
With the
Hazare group insistent that the government’s Lokpal bill be replaced by
its "stronger" version, the PM indicated the official bill was not the
last word. Online
