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The Lokpal Bill has been tabled before the Rajya Sabha. There will be a vote after the debates. Follow all the updates as they happen right here. (Please refresh for latest updates)

9: 05 pm: NDTV says the government will attempt to duck the vote today.

But brace yourself, the debate is expected to go on till midnight. There is still little clarity on whether this session will end or be extended or if the government will wait until next session to pass the bill.

Lots of experts have suggested that the unrealistic deadline taken on by Congress, under the demands of Team Anna, to pass the bill in this session is hastening a process that demands time.

8: 50 pm: The BJP is confident of securing a majority and is expected to push for a vote, even as Salman Khurshid is expected to talk on the subject of minority quota in Lokpal.

7: 30 pm: Lalu meanwhile, has told Pranab that he would vote against the Lokayukta clauses if it came down to that — and it looks increasingly likely now that it would come down to a vote.

7: 00 pm: Creating an uproar in the house, Jethmalani alleged that a ‘fraud’ has been made by the government by signing a protocol with the Swiss government on double taxation.

Making statements like: ‘Please ask these trash to stop behaving like trash’, Jethmalani created a brief ruckus in the House by pointing fingers at Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar.

The chair declared that the word ‘fraud was unparliamentary and that nothing will go on record.

Jethmalani dared Mani to ‘sue him outside if he had the courage’. Mani told the Chair that such accusations and language is unparliamentary. ‘Bazaar language’, as the Congress echoed loud.

The Chair said Ram cannot point fingers at an ex-PM (Rajiv Gandhi), asking ‘Are you really interested in a debate or do you want to point fingers at each other?’

Jethmalani claimed a Swiss paper had named an Indian PM in a corruption charge.

Jethmalani alleged that corruption was discovered during Rajiv’s time.

The UN convention was opened in 2005 when you were in power, but you chose to ratify it only six years later, he said.
But sticking more in line with the topic, he said the CBI is not free today because it has become the govt’s pet body.

6: 30 pm: The BJP MP and eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani gave a vehement defense for the need to have an investigative body like CBI and ensure more independence and power to it.

However, he cautioned that absolute power corrupts and that no organisation should be granted complete autonomy, not the Lokpal or the CBI, but almost philosophically suggested that it is rather the prospect of losing power that actually corrupts people more.

He said: “We cannot do without the CBI. It has to exist as the primary investigative agency in the country. ”

The CBI was born during the years of the war. It was created to prosecute criminals who had accumulated illicit money. And noted that his trust in the agency still exists, as he never saw much abuse of power by the body.

However, he said, taking the side of his party, that the present state of the CBI involves some political bias and that the agency has some individuals who seem to be doing the bidding of some politicians and in their interests.

He feels that old reputation of the CBI no longer exists.

But going on to take a jab at Team Anna, Ram said that Anna did not discover corruption: It was not a discovery by Anna and certainly not a discovery made in 2011, but was rather something discovered during Lal Bahadur Shastri’s time, he added.

He went on to suggest that Lal Bahadur Shastri was the greatest PM India ever seen and corruption was spotted during his time.

6: 00 pm: Mamata has asked all her six MPs to stand firm on the amendments on the Lokpal Bill. With the TMC not budging, Pranab is making more efforts to get other rebels to support the bill. The Finance minister is currently in talks with RJD chief Lalu Prasad, having earlier met met BSP leader S C Mishra.

5: 45 pm: The BJP has voiced its disapproval against one of TMC’s suggestions. The party says it will not support a change in the name of the Lokpal Bill to drop the word Lokayukta, which is what the TMC wants.

At the moment, Congress’ peace maker Pranab Mukherjee and PK Bansal are reaching out to the BSP. Talks are on with Satish Mishra, who spoke earlier.

CPI MP D Raja says the government should man-up, and get the courage to tell the protesters (referring to Team Anna) that there are people in governance who are far more wiser than them.

He felt the government shouldn’t be compelled by external sources to bring the bill within this session.

5: 30 pm: Dinner has been ordered for Rajya Sabha MPs, as the debate drags on.

5: 20 pm: Team Anna is set to meet in Ralegan on January 2 and 3 to discuss the future course of action. They called off their agitation yesterday due to Anna’s bad health.

5: 18 pm: Back in the RS, TMC’s Sukhendu Roy ended his speech saying the party hoped its amendments concerning the Lokayukta would be accepted.

The TMC is adamant in its demands to have the entire chapter on Lokayuktas deleted and even the name of the Bill changed.

But despite asking her MPs to press for these two amendments, Mamata has clarified, dis-alarming any fears of a UPA split, that the TMC is still with the government and that was why the party never joined Anna Hazare’s campaign.

Outside the House, Manmohan and Sonia have called for a Congress Core Group meeting to address their course of action.

5: 15 pm: Giving more indications that the bill is going to go back to the LS for more amendments, Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav expressed doubt over other clauses in the bill and said the legislation cannot be passed in its current form.

He said the Lokpal should not be given superseding powers over the CBI. He expressed further doubt about the abilities of the bill to eradicate corruption.

5: 00 pm: The TMC gave indications that they are very much allied with the UPA, as they are in favour of the bill and that they never sided with Anna, but are just concerned about the Lokayukta clause in the bill.

Meanwhile, the Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari said the Parliament can deal with the shortcomings surrounding the bill later, and expressed hope the bill would be passed in this session.

4.30 pm: The TMC says that they will support the rest of the Lokpal bill but Mamata is unwilling to allow any reference to the Lokayukta in the Bill.

This stand is favored by several smaller parties as well. This is leading to a situation where, if a  vote happens the government  will lose that vote and the Lokpal will fail. Then teh Lokpal will be sent back to the Lok Sabha.

In any case if the Bill is amended in the Rayja Sabha it will be sent back to the Lok Sabha as a matter of course. The adjourned lower house will now only consider the Bill in the next session.

However in a flip side, such a vote might also help the Congress. A vote would force all parties to publicly declare their side in the whole Lokpal debate.

This would allow the Congress to strongly say that while they supported a Lokpal, other parties did not allow the Bill to become a law.

But it appears highly unlikely that the Lokpal Bill will pass in this session of Parliament.

4.00 pm: The JD (U) rpresentative is giving his speech (he is basically attacking the govt) but other developments are also afoot.

Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is sticking firm to their demand for two amendments and will force a division of the House. this could mean that, as the Congress doe snot have the numbers in the Rajya Sabha, the Bill will fail to pass.

That would send the Bill back to the Lok Sabha, which is already adjourned so the whole thing moves to the next session.

The Trinamool Congress also has support for it’s stand from other regional parties like the AIADMK which is making the whole matter tricky.

The Trinamool’s exact stand is

- Change the name of the bill to remove the reference to the Lokayukta in the name of the bill

- Remove all clauses pertaining to the Lokayukta in the Lokpa Bill

(Essentially the states should not be forced to set up Lokayukta’s)

3.45 pm: Yechury wraps up his speech. It was relatively short but a masterpiece nonetheless. His best direct attack on the government was a scorcher -

3.40 pm: Yechury, in a clear snub to the ‘you are with us or against us’ rhetoric of Hazare and his team, clarified that while every one wanted a Lokpal, the issue was not as black and white as  either ‘you want one or don’t want one’.

He said that India needed a Lokpal, but a better Lokpal that the one currently tabled by the government.

3.30 pm: Sitaram Yechury rises to speak for the Communist Party of India (Marxist).  Although soft-spoken and polite, his points are equally biting and lash out at the government.

He said the Constitution clearly states that India is a union of states and without the states there is no India. Yechury hammered the point home by declaring that “If you are making a law against the interest of states, you are making a law against India!”

3.00 pm: Satish Chandra Mishra of the BSP continues the Lokpal Bill after the lunch break.

Although he did divert a bit for an ode to ‘behan’ Mayawati he made several points displaying the angle the BSP was taking with the Bill.

Mishra stated that the CBI needs to be independent. He countered Singhvi’s claim that other institutions were under the government but still independent by asking if the CVC was truly free of control.  He asked the House to consider the scandal involving the appointment of P J Thomas as the CVC chief. (Thomas was removed from his post after accusations of nepotism arose in his appointment)

Mishra snuck in a point by claiming that if the CBI was truly independent then all cases against ‘behen’ Mayawati would have been closed as ‘everyone knows she is innocent’.

Mishra also took a long diversion into UP politics.

He took a swing at the government’s welfare schemes. Questioning why the Congress had only named them after Congress leaders, he asked if some reservation is needed to name some of them after Dalit leaders.

He demanded to know what the Congress had achieved in UP for the past 40 years that they were claiming to change it in five years. (Rahul Gandhi made the claim while campaigning in UP recently).

He finally returned to the the subject at hand by rounding up by saying  -

No law can be framed which is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court can also not be expected to pass judgement on such things.

2.00 pm: The House has broken for lunch until 2.30 pm. The past hour was crackling.

It began with Arun Jaitley’s extensive deconstruction of the BJP’s issues with the current Lokpal Bill. His point-by-point arguement felt rock-solid and difficult to refute.

However as it turned out, the son of the man who coined the term ‘Lokpal’, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, was up to the challenge and countered every point with his own counter-point. He also managed to throw in quite a few colourful and cheeky retorts to Jaitley.

But it seems that the BJP will stick to their demands regarding the imposing of Lokayukta and probably try t tie up with the Trinamool Congress.

1.40 pm: Singhvi and Jaitley get into repeated slinging matches over the fine print issues like inclusion of private trusts into Lokpal and the system for prosecution of the the accused. It makes for some fine back-and-forth drama.

Meanwhile the Speaker frets over lunch.

The Speaker has already asked Singhvi thrice to allow an adjournment for lunch. Singhvi is using the great Indian request – “Just two minutes sir” to extend the session for the next twenty minutes.

01.30 pm: Singhvi says the BJP has not good suggestions but is opposing the Bill simply for the sake of opposing. He accused the BJP of only creating obstacles to the passage of the Bill.

01.15 pm: Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who has taken the floor, asks the BJP to clear the Lokpal bill “for the sake of the nation”.

He says the BJP is attempting to create a monster of unimaginable proportions with their amendments, and even the PM will end up looking like a pygmy in front of the Lokpal if their demands are accepted.

He dismisses these attempted amendments as an excuse to block the bill.

We have given the Lokpal great powers over the CBI, Singhvi goes on to say.

But the Lokpal should not be allowed to destroy the CBI and the CVC (Central Vigilance Commission), he implores, adding, the Lokpal, the CBI and the CVC must depend on each other.

12.40 pm: The BJP is sticking to its stand that there is a clear distinction between Centre and State rights in the Constitution. Arun Jaitley, going into complex legalese, is making his case against the fine print of the law.

He says the Lokpal Bill is currently constitutionally vulnerable and easily defeated if it is questioned in a law of court.

Jaitley lays down the gauntlet – Allow the Lokayuktas to be optional for the states. The Constitutional amendment should say there will be a Lokpal in the Centre and a separate Lokyaukta in the States.

12.18 pm: Jaitley hammers against several of the features of the Lokpal bill. He is mainly venting against the system of appointment and suspension for the Lokpal.

Jaitley said that the substance of the Lokpal law is that the government controls the appointment, the suspension and the investigation of the Lokpal.

Jaitley said the  government wanted this kind of Lokpal a leg into every church, temple, mosque, rotary club and private homes.

Jaitley said that the government had bought a law that weakens the Constitution purposely.

12.05 pm: Some extracts from Arun Jaitley’s still ongoing speech

While the Lokpal may not be perfect or strong in its current form, we must agree that we cannot leave this House without passing the Lokpal.

The nation is watching us and today we will be judged based on what manner of bill we pass today. It does not matter which party it is, all parties will be graded today.

It remains to be seen if only proclamations will be made or something concrete will be created today.

You (the government) wanted to create a phony Lokpal and give it a smokescreen that it has constitutional status. But a Constitutional status does not give the Bill any special power, merely changes the manner in which the law is amended.

You wanted to make it a toy that you can play with and then give it Constitutional status? Your ministers said that the Constitutional status would be a ‘game-changer’ but the game cannot change with such a weak Bill.

We, the BJP, will support the Constitutional status but only if it is a law under article 252 and does not trample on the rights of the States.

Despite what the PM said yesterday (Federalism should not come in the way of fighting corruption), there is no contradiction between Federalism and the fight against corruption. One does not need to destroy Federalism to fight corruption.

Some features of this law border on the absurd!

You will appoint the Lokpal, you will control the investigating body and if the case goes to the Supreme Court, you have the right to suspend the Lokpal. And even if we go to the Supreme Court to appeal against the suspension of the Lokpal, it will take three years to clear and by then the corrupt will be long gone!