Lokpal Bill in Rajya Sabha on Monday?

New Delhi: Anna Hazare’s fast for the passage of the Jan Lokpal Bill and the Aam Aadmi Party’s emergence as a force in the Delhi Assembly polls have compelled the Centre to take up the Lokpal Bill in Parliament in the Winter Session itself.

Hazare, whose fast entered its third day at Ralegan Siddhi, in Maharashtra, on Thursday, shot off a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office calling the government’s attitude “a fraud on democracy” as it was not even on Parliament’s agenda. But government managers made contradictory statements about a date on which the bill would be taken up for consideration and passing in the Rajya Sabha.

“Our priority is the Lokpal Bill. The Lokpal Bill has to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha and then it will come up in the Lok Sabha,” parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath said, adding the government will list the measure in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

But Union minister Harish Rawat told reporters at the Congress briefing that “Monday is decided as the day for it in Rajya Sabha... It is our heartfelt desire that the Lokpal Bill is passed. That we have listed it in this session for passage is a clear indication of this,” he said.

However, The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2011, has been listed in the Rajya Sabha’s revised list of business for Friday (December 13, 2013).

Asked about reports that the government is considering adjourning the two Houses sine die by Friday, Kamal Nath said, “There is no plan at the moment to curtail the session. We have allocated time for other businesses and we have a list of priorities.”

The session is scheduled to end on December 20. The government has assured Hazare that the bill will be taken up in the ongoing  Parli­ament session, but the anti-graft crusader has started an indefinite hunger strike to press for its early passage. Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj accused the government of trying to cut short the session, thereby stalling the anti-graft bill.