Ever since Anna Hazare’s call for a strong Lokpal bill reached fever-pitch in autumn, and the government bought time with ostensibly conciliatory moves, everyone had been waiting for ‘the due process’ to bear fruit. But the 30-member standing committee chaired by Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi, set up to frame a draft bill, is still struggling to evolve anything like a consensus. As we went to press on December 1, an emergency meeting of the committee ended in a stalemate on various contentious issues, with the final touches on the draft still pending.