Winding up the debate on inclusion of Anna Hazare points in the Lokpal bill in the Lok Sabha, Mukherjee hoped that with the unanimous adoption of the resolution Anna Hazare will break the fast and agitation will come to an end.
He said there was congruence of views between the government and the civil society on 34 of the 40 issues already.
Most of the members belonging to various political parties during their speeches in the debate pledged support to these demands. The marathon debate began in the Lok Sabha at 11 A.M. and in the Rajya Sabha at 12 Noon on Saturday.
Participating in the debate Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Mrs. Sushma Swaraj while pledging full support to the three demands of Team Anna .She called for bringing Prime Minister in its ambit with except for national security and public order and also advocated to bring a separate legislation for setting up National Judicial Accountability commission.
Mrs. Swaraj said that the appointment of the Lokpal should be handled by a panel which is not dominated by government. Sandeep Dixit from Congress strongly supported the points brought him focus by the Finance Minister and pleaded for sometime to prepare the required mechanism for operationalisation of citizen charter. He also stressed the need to create a separate mechanism to deal with malpractices in corporate sectors and NGOs.
In the Rajya Sabha the Leader of the Opposition Mr. Arun Jaitley said that while framing legislation, care should be taken so that there is no interference or overlapping powers between the Centre and the States. He opined that the appointment and performance of Judges cannot be left to judges alone.
Mr. Ashwani Kumar, Union Minister and Senior Congress leader opposed the proposal of Prime Minister’s inclusion in the Lokpal. Agreeing with the basic premise that Lokayuktas need to be appointed in all States to deal with corruption, he said it has to be implemented keeping in view the federal structure of the country.
Several other prominent parliamentarians who participated in the debate of the two Houses, so far they include Mr. Sudeep Bandhopadhyay of TMC, Sharad Yadad , JDU, Revti Raman Singh ,SP, Dara Singh Chauhan, BSP, T.K. S. Elegovan, DMK, Sitaram Yechury, CPIM and Lalu Prassad ,JDU. The main points raised by them 90 days time line for setting up of Lokpal, criticism of media for reported one sided coverage of Anna fast.
Earlier making identical statements in the two houses at the beginning of the discussion in Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee had proposed for adoption a resolution by consensus.