Breaking Anna's fast more urgent than good bill: Khurshid

The urgency to get Anna Hazare to break his nine-day fast was greater than passing a "good Lokpal bill", law minister Salman Khurshid said today.

The urgency to get Anna Hazare to break his nine-day fast was greater than passing a "good Lokpal bill", law minister Salman Khurshid said on Wednesday.

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"A good bill can come 10-15 days later but a fast cannot be broken 20 days later. So if we look at the priorities of urgency, then the urgency that the fast must come to an end is far greater, more serious than the urgency to pass the bill," Khurshid told reporters.

A hectic round of talks between the government and Team Anna have been under way - the latest being between Khurshid and Hazare associates on Wednesday morning - ahead of an all-party meeting scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

"The all-party meeting is our sincere attempt to find a common position in parliament. If there is no common position in parliament, to at least try and work towards it," Khurshid said.

"We are not yet in any position to say that we have agreed to this or that.. it is an urgency and we want to address it. But the urgency to break the fast is not any less than the urgency to bring a good bill," he added.

Science and technology minister Vilasrao Deshmukh added that 74-year-old Hazare's health was an issue of "major concern".

"People from Ralegan Siddhi (Hazare's village in Maharashtra) came to meet me...the pressure has been building up. Anna Hazare's health is a major concern...but now we are on the right track," Deshmukh said.