From the beginning of the proceedings today, speakers from Team Anna appeared to be pressing home one point above all: they had returned to Jantar Mantar with an agenda larger than the (Jan) Lokpal. The Bill must be passed this winter session, or else there would be a "jail bharo aandolan", said Anna. "Not a single jail will remain empty," he promised. But the larger goal was another law, or constitutional amendment, to ensure that "the people" are given a say in law-making. Representative democracy  that pact, in Anna Hazare's own words, between "malik" and "sevak"  was sought not so much to be recast as cast aside for a more radical, direct notion of democracy.

Our democracy is "of the high command and by the high command", said Arvind Kejriwal. "We need a law that ensures that before making a decision the MP does not ask the high command, but the gram sabha and mohalla sabha". Said Manish Sisodia, described from the stage as "Anna's shadow": "Laws can no longer be made in a closed room", nor in "North Block or South Block", but in the "streets, in the villages".

More than one member of Team Anna gave the example of the proposed FDI in retail and the India-US nuclear deal as policies and decisions where "the people" must be asked first. "Did you (the politicians) ask the people before you signed the nuclear deal?" asked Prashant Bhushan.

When they took the stage, the politicians chose not to respond to that question, nor did they address Team Anna's larger challenge. They confined themselves to the Lokpal Bill.

From the BJP represented by Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, to the CPM's Brinda Karat, the CPI's AB Bardhan, the Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Yadav, the BJD's Pinaki Mishra, the Telugu Desam Party's Yerran Naidu, the Akali Dal's Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and the JD(U)'s Sharad Yadav, they outlined their areas of agreement with each other and with Team Anna, and their differences. There seemed to be a broad consensus on the inclusion of the prime minister, lower bureaucracy and the CBI under the proposed anti-corruption body.

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