Making sense of the differences between Anna Hazare and govt on Lokpal Bill

Should the judiciary be included in the Lokpal's purview?

According to Team Anna, the courts are not doing enough to combat corruption in the judiciary. Which is why they should be under the Lokpal. If the government agrees, says Usha Ramanathan, an independent Delhi-based legal researcher, "It will impact the independence of the judiciary." Countering this the Anna Hazare team says, in the minutes of the 5th meeting of the joint drafting panel, that "there was no question of interfering with the judiciary and that only power for investigation was being sought". The government points out, in the same minutes, that "the Lokpal's decisions are subject to a judicial review. But, if the judges themselves are answerable to the Lokpal, could that create a situation where judges might be unwilling to go against the proposed anti-corruption watchdog?"

What about the prime minister?

Team Anna says existing laws do not prevent or preclude investigations into the post of the prime minister. The government says any investigation of the prime minister would lead to an institutional instability. And that the Lokpal is free to investigate the PM once his tenure ends. Says Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar: "I see no reason why the prime minister should not be within the ambit of the Lokpal. But this will have to be a collective decision that has to be first taken by the cabinet and then by Parliament."

What about the conduct of MPs and MLAs in the House?

This demand is partly rooted in the cash-forvotes scam of 2008. But, as Kishore Chandra Deo, who chaired the committee set up by the Parliament to enquire into the matter, the guilty MPs were expelled from the House. MPs, he says, have also been expelled for misusing the MPLADS programme and other offenses. "It's not like the current system is not working," he says. Aiyar says, the chairman of the Rajya Sabha and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha have "ample powers" to rusticate any member. The answer to everything does not lie in the Lokpal, he says. "In a democracy, Parliament is supreme. It cannot surrender its sovereignity."

Should the Lokpal oversee all bureaucracy or only the Joint Secretaries and above?