Is Jan Lokpal Bill enough?

The attacks on the civil society members of the panel drafting the Jan Lokpal (JLP) Bill has subsided a little, or so it appears – or maybe the politicians are playing a relay race wherein a politician starts the smear campaign and gives the baton to the other to take over…is this how we can describe the diatribe of Kapil Sibal followed by Digvijay Singh and now Mani Shankar Aiyar, not to mention the likes of Amar Singh in between? Nevertheless, it also appears that better sense has prevailed within the group of the civil society members and they have decidedly resolved to stand up against the smear campaign and not let any from its flock to succumb to the pressure tactics of our wily politicians!

Hopefully, ceteris paribus, we will have the first draft of the JLP Bill by end of May or early June. However, as mentioned in one of my previous notes, whilst the Jan Lokpal Bill is a law that will keep the corrupt at bay by providing for stern and quick punishments to the offenders and hopefully being a top down intervention, will cleanse the system over time if we have proper checks and balances in place…is it fine to assume this or are we missing something here? Conceded that the JLP Bill is a crucial instrument in the hands of public to cut the cancerous tree of corruption branch-by-branch, but, is this enough? Conceded that we need to also look at bottom up interventions that will regenerate the lost values we as a nation collectively once had….this one is surely a concern and will be addressed separately in another note – in this note, I want to focus on the top down interventions only and from among the various top down interventions, one of the crucial ones is the JLP Bill, however, I feel we need another tool that will not just cut the cancerous tree of corruption, branch-by-branch but a tool that will cut this cancerous tree of corruption root-by-root so that the tree does not regenerate as would happen if only branches were to be cut.

So, what is this other and perhaps more important top down intervention? For this, we need to look at one of the root causes of corruption in India – if one were to look carefully on where corruption is originating from, it will be soon clear that our polity is the fount of corruption in our country – a politician spends crores of rupees to get elected by paying for the votes and then spends the next five years to recover the “investment” he/ she has made along with an obscene “rate of return”, one that can never be made in legal ways. For this “recovery of principal” and the “return on investment”, the politician then initiates a set of triggers that lead to every aspect of public life getting mired in corruption so as to feed the entire food chain all the way up to the political master and deliver the “principal” and “rate of return” – therefore, it is important that we also bring in this intervention that will cut the tree of corruption root-by-root and ensure that it does not regenerate. Not surprisingly, just like the JLP Bill, this intervention too, that is, the electoral reforms have been languishing to see the light of day, as there is stiff resistance by the politicians. Once the JLP Bill is passed and becomes law, then, we need to look at the electoral reforms to ensure that we cleanse the polity of this country brick-by-brick by systematically marginalizing and weeding out the corrupt politicians and criminals and at the same time infuse fresh incorruptible blood into body polity of India.

So, lets get ready for a new crusade after the JLP Bill is behind us!

Thoughts of an irrepressible Indian!: Well done Anna. Encore!

Thoughts of an irrepressible Indian!: Well done Anna. Encore!: "Anna Hazare has got the government to act and agree to all his demands paving the way to constitute the new Jan Lokpal B..."

Thoughts of an irrepressible Indian!: The Cynic & The Optimist!

Thoughts of an irrepressible Indian!: The Cynic & The Optimist!: "The debate is on between the cynic and the optimist! Normally, I find myself being a cynic but on this one, strangely but ..."

So, what next?

Why suddenly there is a smear campaign against Anna’s team, specifically the Bhushans? It’s not difficult to see through this…clearly, it does not take an Einstein to figure out who benefits the most from such a smear campaign!

So, what next?

Do we get someone else in place of Bhushans? If we accede, then, our hallowed politicians will get some other issue to stall the momentum gained over the last few weeks and if no action is taken then the same politicians will succeed in planting the seeds of doubt in the minds of public (something they have been wanting to do with some active support of “helpful” media!). As they say, damned if you do and damned if you don’t!

Where do we go from here? Looks like this “revolution” too will fritter away as many other before it because “revolutions” such as these are unstructured and with multiple power centers and each pulling in different direction and it is difficult to sustain momentum – just like a tsunami which causes most of the destruction with its initial momentum but then recedes as quickly as it came unless another aftershock causes another tsunami! So, how does one sustain the momentum? The fact is that these attacks by the politicians both from within the government and outside it will continue to grow and will sap the momentum and energy of the movement.

So, what next?

Undoubtedly, what Anna has given us is an opportunity and a platform to forge ahead and put together a law that will help stem corruption and therefore, its important that Anna’s team goes on to help draft the new Jan Lokpal bill regardless of the smear campaign against it as the credibility of the team will be evident in the finalized draft bill that is put up for public to comment upon…to this, one could argue, wouldn’t it be too late as the draft bill will have been readied by then without proper scrutiny and would go to the parliament for its nod? Yes, that’s true but then, there are two possible outcomes to this, one that the parliament ratifies the bill and it becomes law and second that its falls through the parliamentary process and does not become law. In either case, we do not get a desired result and thus do not gain or loose anything. Again, one would argue that if we had changed the panel and removed the Bhushans with someone else, then, perhaps we would have got a bill that was originally intended…but then, what’s the guarantee that the replacement of Bhushans do not come with similar baggage and result in the same outcome as what we are dreading now!

So, what next? As I see it, it’s best to proceed with Anna’s chosen team and also put in place milestone review mechanisms that will ensure transparency in each stage of bill drafting, some sort of maker-checker mechanism, so that any kinks in the draft are addressed as and when they appear and we get the desired bill at the end of it all.

Are we game? Or, will we fall prey to the usual wily politicians? Choice is ours.

Well done Anna. Encore!

Anna Hazare has got the government to act and agree to all his demands paving the way to constitute the new Jan Lokpal Bill with adequate civil society inputs by August 15, 2011 but I wonder with amazement at the quickness of government acquiescence, something we did not see when it came to constituting a JPC to investigate the 2G scam for which the government did not even mind to let a session of parliament washout, whereas, here it took the government less than a week to act! Seeing such prompt action, I am and am sure like me many Indians too are tempted to ask Anna to take up every issue we are facing as a nation with the government and get the results as quickly as we did in this case!

Alas, what happens in Indian polity is not as simple in terms of action and reaction playing out so blandly as it did apparently in this instance, that is, Anna’s action of hunger strike resulting in government’s reaction of agreeing to his demands in a jiffy – there is more to it than what meets the eye and its not so difficult to see through this sudden nimble footedness in government’s demeanor. With the four states and a UT, namely Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry going to assembly polls in a few weeks time and the fact that corruption is a major issue that is on electorate’s minds as well as on opposition’s agenda, the UPA and more importantly the Congress needed to show well before the first ballot was cast in these assembly polls that they are “serious” in acting against corruption and had they persisted against or chose to ignore Anna’s campaign, then, the political price would have been quite steep to pay, both the UPA and the Congress. So, in its own best interest, the government acted the way it actually did! This further gets very apparent because before Anna actually began the hunger strike, his letters to the PM Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi drew no response whatsoever and further the dismissive ranting of another senior cabinet minister Kapil Sibal who gave some amazingly ludicrous reasons debasing the demand for the Jan Lokpal Bill pointed to government’s initial disinterest and snub to the demands raised by Anna. However, all this changed the moment the government saw mass support for Anna’s cause across the country and the media coverage (and all forms of it from print, to television and to minute by minute online coverage and support through various online forums) it was receiving and the fact that these were affecting UPA and particularly Congress’ election prospects in the four states and the UT cornered the government into action quickly so that the damage can be limited as well as ensure that it is not seen on the wrong side of history by the people going to the ballot in a few weeks.

At the same time, cynics could argue that it was Anna’s masterstroke to join the issue with the government in this opportune time (when the four states and UT were going to the polls) and corner the government into action but it looks unlikely to be the case and even if it were so, I will unhesitatingly say and so, am sure most Indians will say too, “Well-done Anna. Encore!”

The Cynic & The Optimist!

The debate is on between the cynic and the optimist! Normally, I find myself being a cynic but on this one, strangely but thankfully too, I find myself being on the other side!

The cynic says that what has started as a movement by Anna Hazare and his ilk is miniscule of an effort to dislodge the gauntlet presented by corruption and brazen lack of values in all spheres of existence of Indian nationhood.

The optimist obviously feels otherwise and says so because as a nation we are not just 63 years old but the roots of India go back eons and as people we are perhaps among the very few civilizations the world has witnessed that left a legacy so rich in art, culture, knowledge and all things that we consider one with human excellence and the fact that all this was there till a few hundred years ago until the British arrived on the scene...the British Raj of nearly 300 years followed by the dynastical polity we as a nation propagated along with the flawed economic model spawned by the License Raj has bred corruption as well as a few generations of Indians who have a misplaced set of values that I feel can be corrected with proper interventions -- what is also important to note here is that these few generation of Indians with misplaced set of values are a very small minority in this 1.2 billion people strong nation but ironically they hold most of the powerful positions in government and bureaucracy and thus rule on the majority of Indians. Also, even in the last 63 years of independence, we have witnessed glimpses of India of the bygone era -- one such instance of brilliance I can recall was the set of values that we displayed as a nation during the government led by Lal Bahadur Shastri when we got together as a nation and donated family gold for the nation under attack and during another instance we observed fast once a week (every Monday) so that we conserve food for the hungry fellow country men during a famine...these instances prove that we as a nation and people, we are not shallow but one that lack direction and leadership which can be given by proper interventions and Anna Hazare's is one such intervention and leadership...and we need many more such interventions along with an effective Jan Lokpal Bill which will provide people like Anna Hazare and many others a potent anti-corruption tool, one they can use to effectively cleanse the system over time. Having said this, we should keep in mind that this being a top-down approach would require constant monitoring and course correction. What's equally and perhaps more important from a long-term perspective is to set in motion a program that will keep the system clean from within (without needing outside interventions) and this will be something that will originate from the grassroots, that is from the bottom-up and one that would lead to the resurgence of values that have over the last few generations become dormant -- for this, we need dynamic and selfless leadership that will lead by example and inspire people to emulate and live these values (just like we did under LBS' leadership)...ideally, we should have multiple leaders here to look up to as a nation as its would have a multiplier effect...I purposely said selfless leadership as we do not want to unleash another dynastical brigade! The top-down approach is the easier one of the two and one that has hopefully begun to play out now and will unfold itself in the next decade or so and do its bit to cleanse the system but we as a nation should strive for the bottom-up approach that will regenerate the values we have always had but one that has been covered by the grime of corruption and selfishness over time. 


The optimist rests his case!