New Delhi:  The growing chorus over Lokpal Bill and battling corruption, it seems, has the Congress-led UPA worried. And a meeting of the Congress Core Group at the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signals that.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and other senior congress leaders are attending the meeting at 7, Race Course Road in New Delhi. The exact agenda of the meeting, however, is not yet clear.
The Core Committee held a meeting yesterday also on these and related issues.
Sources say the Core Group, Congress’ highest decision-making body, is expected to chart out the party’s strategy for the big political developments in recent days. Apart from the Lokpal issue, the police crackdown on yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s camp on the intervening night of June 4-5 has also been an albatross around the government’s neck as it had to face a lot of criticism at the hands of the Opposition parties, especially the BJP.
Apart from these, the Telangana is most likely to be discussed.
In April, Jantar Mantar became the base camp for lakhs of Indians who supported Mr Hazare as he fasted for nearly a week.
Satellite protests in cities across India had stumped the government, which agreed to Mr Hazare’s demands. He wanted a new law against corruption to be enacted, and he wanted activists who represent civil society to formally draft that law. After arguing that legislation was the prerogative of Parliament, the government gave in. Mr Hazare and four activists, including Mr Kejriwal, formed one half of the Lokpal Bill drafting committee; five senior ministers formed the other.
But of late, the movement has run into rough weather after an impasse between the two sides over drafting the bill. The activists slammed the government accusing it of turning the Lokpal Bill into a “Jokepal Bill.” Mr Hazare has once again threatened to sit on a hunger strike.
On June 4, yoga icon Baba Ramdev whose followers run into lakhs started his fast in Delhi at the Ramlila Maidan. 65,000 people were in attendance when the police broke up the camp with teargassing and a lathicharge. The Baba was evicted and flown back to Uttarakhand.