The United Progressive Alliance government is again erring in its dealing with activist Anna Hazare and his demands. Whether the government is doing so out of ignorance or arrogance is open to debate. For his part, the 74-year-old crusader against corruption, easily the most talked about and most powerful man in India today, has also taken an unreasonable stand by issuing his latest fiat to the government that it must pass the Jan Lokpal Bill by August 30 or else his agitation will intensify.

The government is unnecessarily dilly-dallying when batting with a straight bat would have suited both the Congress and the government better. There was no point in referring the Lokpal Bill to parliament’s standing committee (a mini-parliament in itself as it comprises members of all major political parties) immediately after the bill was introduced in parliament on August 4. The government should have taken up the Lokpal Bill immediately for discussion in both houses of parliament.

So far, the nation doesn’t know where exactly the main opposition parties stand on the Lokpal Bill versus the actual Jan Lokpal Bill as political parties have simply voiced their support for Hazare – a political inevitability as no right thinking individual, group or party can afford to do otherwise under the current circumstances.

A full-fledged debate in parliament on the Lokpal Bill would have brought real clarity on the issue as the reality is that no political party can afford to vote for Hazare’s version of the Lokpal Bill in total as it goes against the grain of the current system and the powers of members of parliament. One of the features of the Jan Lokpal Bill, for example, is that it seeks to bring all MPs and their conduct in parliament under its ambit.

The UPA government has not only misread the mood of the nation, but also not bothered to follow obvious political and parliamentary compulsions. The government and the Congress party is clearly losing its marbles with its unnecessary foot dragging on the Lokpal debate when doing just the opposite – what Team Anna wants – would have served their own cause better. Another mistake was the government decision to invite people’s views on the Lokpal Bill by inserting huge advertisements in today’s newspapers – it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Someone should ask the Congress and the government who their advisors are, because they are lacking the political astuteness that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh showed in his first term in office.

Team Anna and the government appear to be sheathing their swords. On Day Six of Anna Hazare’s indefinite fast, as the Congress party and the United Progressive Alliance government extended an olive branch, the 74-year-old Gandhian told a 28,000-strong crowd at Ramlila Maidan that he’s still open to talks.

‘We have not closed the door of dialogue. We have kept it open. Only through dialogue the issues can be resolved,’ Hazare said in his address at the fast venue.

The Congress and UPA took a step toward easing the standoff with Hazare and his associates as the Congress MP from Bareilly, Praveen Singh Aaron, submitted civil society’s Jan Lokpal Bill to the parliamentary Standing Committee for consideration. Indications are that the committee chairman, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, will soon decide whether to take up the bill for deliberation. Singhvi said the committee was also concerned about corruption, and so would look at the Lokpal Bill with an open mind.

‘Give the standing committee a chance. Allow us to do our work. We may collectively surprise all those who are sceptical or cynical,’ Singhvi said.

Meanwhile, the back channel parleys between Team Anna and the government have resumed since August 20 with two important actors: Maharashtra’s Additional Chief Secretary Umesh Chandra Sarangi, and Team Anna member and former Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde. Sarangi, who is reputed to have had a good rapport with Hazare for years, has already held two rounds of discussions with the Gandhian to try to find some common ground. The details of these talks are being kept under wraps by both sides. Hegde is believed to be trying to convince Hazare that the prime minister and the higher judiciary should be kept out of the Lokpal ambit, but there has apparently been no breakthrough as yet.

With Aaron’s move, the Congress party and the government have done two things. One, they have brought the Jan Lokpal Bill into the parliamentary process and thus sent out an important message to Team Anna that they are keen to address civil society’s concerns. Two, they have stolen the thunder from the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, whose Lok Sabha MP Varun Gandhi had been set to take the Private Members’ Bill route to get Jan Lokpal Bill into the parliamentary process.

A group of 40 Hazare supporters squatted near the prime minister’s official residence this weekend as their march from India Gate to the prime minister’s residence was aborted when flower carrying, slogan- shouting activists were ordered to stop 200 metres away. This followed an appeal yesterday from Team Anna to Hazare’s supporters across the country to hold peaceful protests outside the residences of their MPs.

The inevitable has happened. It’s not just the Congress that is opposing Anna Hazare’s crusade for setting up a completely independent institution of Lokpal (ombudsman) that would have the prime minister, ministers and members of parliament under its ambit. The first non-Congress salvo against Hazare has now been fired by the Communist Party of India (CPI), which said on June 23 that those who expect the Lokpal Bill to rid the country of corruption are ‘living in a fool's paradise.’

CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan lashed out at civil society representatives, speaking in the kind of language that could easily be confused with that of Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh (although he condemned Singh’s smear campaign against Team Anna).

‘What does a “civil society” mean? Who are its members? Can they speak on behalf of the entire country? The five members (of civil society who are members of the joint drafting committee on the Lokpal bill) have an exaggerated notion about themselves. One must be modest,’ Bardhan reportedly said.

Bardhan dismissed Team Anna’s claims as ‘highly exaggerated’ and demanded to know from civil societyrepresentatives if they had touched on the source of corruption. In the next breath, though, he gave his own response. He said that corporate houses were ‘fertile sources’ of corruption, adding that there is a ‘nexus between corporate houses, bureaucrats and politicians.’ Bardhan did add, though, that he agrees with most of the points in the draft.

Observers here are convinced that tougher political opposition to the so-called ‘civil society’ led by Anna Hazare has been set in motion, and that the trickle of criticism promises to become a torrent. And this assessment likely isn’t far off the mark. Hazare has bitten off much more than he can chew, and has erred by taking on the entire political system.

The CPI’s reaction is significant. Thus far, it had been a face-off between Team Anna and the UPA government. The other three parties that constitute the Left Front together with the CPI – CPI (M), Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) ­­– will inevitably follow suit sooner or later. All eyes will therefore now be on the main opposition Bhartiya Janta Party.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has written a letter to all political parties and chief ministers, in his capacity of chairman of the joint drafting committee, seeking their views on the Lokpal bill. All major Opposition parties, including the BJP and the CPI (M), have declined to give their views, saying they will only do so in parliament. The monsoon session of parliament is scheduled to begin on August 1.

Anna Hazare and the United Progressive Alliance government took their first but significant steps toward breaking the impasse over the activist’s latest fast, which has entered its eighth day. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote a letter to the Gandhian and appealed to him to break his fast in a bid to ease the deadlock over the Lokpal Bill issue, saying ‘we are together in this fight against corruption.’

Meanwhile, Team Anna and the UPA government started direct talks today, and the government has appointed its top trouble shooter and most senior minister, Pranab Mukherjee, to mediate with the Hazare camp. Mukherjee’s first round of talks was expected to begin later today, and Singh gave his personal guarantee that ‘all issues’ raised by Team Anna will be looked into and resolved at the earliest.

The UPA government has also convened an all-party meeting for tomorrow afternoon to try to find a way out of the impasse. Heir apparent and Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi was reportedly closeted with the prime minister today, with the talks focusing mainly on Hazare’s fast and the condition of his health.

Although no breakthrough has come so far today, the Hazare camp was relatively upbeat following the appointment of Mukherjee as mediator as they know he wields considerable authority and is widely seen as essentially de facto deputy prime minister.

Still, Hazare kept the pressure up, warning the government today that if a strong Lokpal bill isn’t passed by parliament by August 30, that he and his supporters will no longer sit at Ramlila Maidan, but will instead stage a sit-in outside Parliament.

‘Thousands of people are staging sit-ins outside the houses of MPs,’ Hazare said. ‘I request the people of my country to continue this revolution. This revolution should continue even if I am not there. This is the second freedom struggle. It is important to eradicate corruption for the development of our country. I would consider myself lucky if I die for my society and the people of my country. Those who live for themselves die, those who die for the society live.’

The main opposition the Bharatiya Janata Party, meanwhile, demonstrated that it isn’t just the Congress party that has become frustrated with Team Anna. Outspoken BJP MP S.S. Ahluwalia said:  ‘We don’t agree with the deadline given by Team Anna.’ Lest this should be mistaken as support for the government, Ahluwalia added that the government should withdraw its bill from parliament and replace it with a more effective bill.

The UPA government has learnt the hard way that it can’t stop the Anna Hazare tsunami, and it is now focusing on alternative strategies even as the Gandhian social activist is beginning his much-hyped fast at Delhi’s sprawling Ramlila grounds.

The anti-corruption campaigner left Tihar Jail after spending three nights there, despite having been officially released only hours after he wasdetained on August 16. The government will now likely be worried that Hazare has made it clear he’s not going to budge from the fast venue until the Jan Lokpal Bill, the ombudsman bill that Hazare-led civil society has drafted, is passed by parliament.

Hazare exhorted young people not to let this torch in the fight against corruption be put out – whether or not he’s still alive. He also sounded a warning to the government when he urged his followers and well-wishers to support his campaign with renewed vigour. ‘Countrymen should not lose this spirit. This is our fight against corruption. I have lost 3 kilograms, but I am getting energy from my supporters across the country,’ he said. ‘I have full faith in my country. This government has looted the country. We will now only sit in peace when the corruption gets removed from the country. Till Jan Lokpal Bill is passed, we will not leave Ramlila Maidan.’

The political top brass of the United Progressive Alliance government is now working out how to deal with Anna Hazare. There’s near unanimity that both the Congress Party and the government have failed miserably – first in gauging the nation’s mood on the issue of corruption, then calling him names (Congress spokesman Manish Tewari went as far as to say Hazare was corrupt ‘from tip to toe’). Sending him to jail for a week, only to backpedal a few hours later, was the final straw.

There are four possibilities on how this could play out. The first possibility for the government would be to send Hazare’s Jan Lokpal Bill to the parliament’s standing committee, a demand that has been put forth by Hazare himself and thus far ignored by the government. Second, the standing committee could itself invite Hazare to place his Jan Lokpal Bill before it. Third, the Jan Lokpal Bill could be floated in parliament as a private members bill. This possibility seems most likely, and the government doesn’t seem averse to this circuitous way of getting the bill into parliament. Indeed, there’s a strong possibility that the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party’s Varun Gandhi may bring the bill next week. The fourth possibility is the simplest and one that should have been obvious to the movers and shakers in the UPA government but wasn’t: give Hazare as much rope as he wants.

Whatever the government decides to do, one thing is clear: it will only try strong arm tactics against Team Anna if it wants to press the self-destruct button.

There seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel of Anna Hazare’s confrontation with the government. The much-hyped all-party meetingconvened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh proved to be an ambush for Team Anna and a success for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government as virtually all parties told Hazare what the government has been saying for months: that parliament is supreme and some of the provisions of the Jan Lokpal Bill (drafted by Hazare’s associates) are therefore unacceptable.

Party leaders were unanimous in dismissing Team Anna's strident demand of a deadline for the tabling and passing by parliament of the Jan Lokpal Bill as unacceptable. Significantly, the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party firmly opposed Hazare's demand for having Lokayuktas (chief ombudsmen) in every state.

Singh indicated that his government wasn’t in favour of withdrawing the Lokpal Bill it had introduced in parliament on August 4 – a major pre-condition set by Team Anna. He admitted that the government was in a bind, though, over how to proceed. Hazare, meanwhile, continued to pressure the government, with Team Anna declaring he was healthy enough to fast for nine more days.

‘My fast has entered the ninth day. Nothing will happen to me. I can fast for another nine days. We will fight together,’ the 74-year-old activist said amid thunderous applause.

The government has made a new offer to Team Anna and proposed bringing the prime minister and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under the Lokpal ambit, but keeping the higher judiciary, lower bureaucracy and MPs’ conduct in parliament out of Lokpal’s purview. The government offer promises to pass the new bill in the current session of parliament, even if the parliament session has to be extended by a few weeks.

As for the government, it has made it clear that passing the Lokpal Bill in the monsoon session of parliament, as demanded by Hazare, isn’t possible. Still, the government has taken a big step forward on the issue, and union minister V Narayanasamy said the Department of Personnel had forwarded the Jan Lokpal Bill to the Parliament Standing Committee for consideration.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury said that the government had agreed to withdraw the Lokpal Bill and introduce a new and stronger version. The BJP’s Sushma Swaraj, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, claimed that the government was reluctant to withdraw the Lokpal Bill.

To top it all, a statement released at the end of the all-party meeting read thus: ‘This meeting of all parties in parliament requests Anna Hazare to end his fast. The meeting was also of the view that due consideration should be given to the Jan Lokpal Bill so that the final draft of the Lokpal Bill provides for a strong and effective Lokpal which is supported by a broad national consensus.’