New Delhi, January 28
The UPA government has been set a deadline for the passage of the Lokpal Bill after Congress president Sonia Gandhi assured social activist Anna Hazare that the anti-corruption legislation will be passed in the coming budget session of Parliament.

The Congress president wrote to Anna Hazare on Tuesday underlining the government’s commitment to the Lokpal and assured him that the Bill would be passed in the budget session which commences end-February.

Sonia Gandhi’s commitment comes in the backdrop of Anna Hazare’s announcement earlier this month that he would be setting out on a nation-wide tour from Bihar on January 30 in support of farmers’ organisations.

The Lokpal Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha in 2011 but was subsequently stalled in Rajya Sabha following resistance from Opposition parties and former UPA partner, the Trinamool Congress, which said that the provision for setting up of Lokayuktas in the states violated the country’s federal structure.

The Bill was then referred to a Parliamentary select committee which has already submitted its report to Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari.

The government has reiterated its commitment to the setting up an anti-corruption ombudsman but there have been no signs of any movement on this front. Sonia Gandhi had mentioned the Lokpal Bill in her speech at the recent Congress chintan shivir in Jaipur while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has also made several references to the UPA governemnt’s package of anti-corruption legislations in his speeches.

Time is running out for the Congress-led UPA government. Faced with public ire on the issue of corruption and poor governance and with less than eighteen months to go for the next Lok Sabha polls, the beleaguered Congress cannot afford to dilly-dally on this issue.

Besides taking on social activist Anna Hazare and his former colleague Arvind Kejriwal’s campaign against it, the Congress now has to contend with an energised BJP with its new president Rajnath Singh at the helm of affairs. With Nitin Gadkari out of the way, the BJP is now all set to pin down the Congress on the issue of corruption.

Well aware of this upcoming political challenge, Sonia Gandhi promptly responded to a letter she received from Anna Hazare on January 23 in which he wanted to know if the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would be brought under the purview of the proposed ombudsman or would continue to be controlled by the government. This was another sticking point between the government and the social activists and the opposition parties as the latter want the premier investigation body should be autonomous. Earlier on January 10, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had also written to Anna Hazare assuring him that the government is acting on the select committee’s recommendations.