Almost three and a half
years passed, since I wrote this commentary on the movement for Lokpal bill led
by Sri Anna Hazare. Presently, the
hulla-bolla of Lokpal seems to reach its fate accompli. Moreover, some of the past comrades of Annaji
have recently occupied the seat of power in the state of Delhi, and raised the expectation of Aam Admi
in providing fair and just governance. It would be interesting to see their
adjustment and political realignment in the prevailing system. Under this
context we may revisit the events of August 2011, and my understanding of the
movement at that stage.
16.02.2015
It
appears that a large section of so called civil society of India are
emotionally charged by the hunger strike of Sri Anna Hazare, and are joining
his bandwagon for placing his version of Lokpal Bill to fight the corruption in
the Government machinery. They consider that the Lokpal is the messiah for
upholding democracy in this country, as it will make the Babus and Netas
accountable, and enforce transparency in their dealings with private citizens. Interestingly
against a far more blatant violation of civil rights, we have not heard these
voices so loud and clear. We have not seen mainstream media’s outcry against
the most uncivil laws practiced in different parts of this country (e.g., AFSPA
in Manipur). Hardly there is any coverage and support for activists like Irom Sharmila
Chanu, who is on hunger strike years after years (since the year 2000) for their
withdrawal. We have not found these champions of democracy to go for a hunger
strike when Vinayak Sen, the dedicated doctor serving rural people of
Chhatishgarh and leading a social movement for people’s health and economic
upliftment, was kept in prison for more than a year with flimsy charges. They
were all mute listeners to our roaring Home Minister who labels any civil
citizen as supporter of ultra-left violence, if he / she raises voice against
the state repression on common people and repression of political activists fighting
against such atrocities. Now these champions of transparency and
corruption-free India
have suddenly stormed the capital with the slogan of formation of Lokpal Institution
for fighting the menace. Even a section of media hails their movement as
another freedom struggle. Mainstream
opposition political parties are also happy to join the frenzy and commotion of
volatile mass, which can overshadow their links with major business houses and
their corrupt patronage to them, as the color of corruption in the eyes of
Annaji is ‘Sarkari’.
Interestingly,
Government is also more than ready to bring the Lokpal Bill, which is to be
tabled in the Parliament in the current session. But Annaji and company want their versions in
word by word to be accepted, even if Parliament is not willing to pass them. Even
more surprising is the fact that these two versions have cosmetic differences,
such as whether to bring the office of Prime Minister under its purview, whether
it should be able to judge the judges, how the selection committee should be
formed, whether an MP’s participation in the parliament is under its jurisdiction,
whether the CBI should be merged with the Lokpal, etc. All these could have
been resolved in the parliament during the passing of the bill and bringing
amendments to it. However, the peaceful Gandhian and his supporters started
burning the copies of the Government’s version, and demanded complete adoption
of their version by any means. The Government also on its own rationale,
chooses to heighten the tension between two camps. They could have considered
so called civil society’s version for the parliamentary debate, and resolved it
there. In stead, the Congress party started attacking the individual members,
questioning their integrity, and subsequently the Government allowed the
situation to embroil into a state of confusion and anarchy. They arrested Annaji
and their associates, and are successful enough to bring the Lokpal in the
forefront of antigovernment demonstration.
Why Lokpal?
One
thing is clear from the shadow fight of these two opposing camps. Both of them apparently
agreed upon the fact that the present constitutional bodies for checking
corruption failed abysmally. From their eagerness of looking for an alternative
institution, we can infer that our executive bodies and judiciary are either
incompetent or corrupt to handle this corruption. We need a separate
constitutional body, which should be specially targeted to punish the rogue
elements in the government machinery. Lokpal appears to be a ready-made
solution under this context. It is under consideration of parliament for
decades. But neither the present, nor the past Governments, which included
oppositions as well, had any intention of tabling it. So the credit goes to Annaji, as he took the
opportune moment of exposure of a series of scams and corruption involving
different Ministries and a section of MPs, and mobilized his supporters with
favorable media coverage for the constitution of Lokpal. What is amazing, is
the promptness with which the Government accepted the demand, and subsequently,
almost all the political parties, which were not so keen on passing Lokpal bill
so far, started favoring its speedy adoption. Annaji and his team became
buoyant with their negotiated success, and went for a glorious celebration. The
Government also was more than happy to trap an opportunity of showing its face
of reformation, when it has practically nothing to offer to the people in the
face of rising inflation and under-employment.
Brickbats between two camps
What
confuses us is that, even after Government’s assurance on formation of Lokpal, there
is no lessening of antigovernment rhetoric from the opposing camp. They
rejected the draft produced by the Government, and placed their own version to
the public. However, to a non-partisan person, they would appear by and large
in conformity. There are differences, but they are not as significant as asking
for any revolutionary change in the social or political structure of this
country. However, Annaji and his associates are adamant on insisting their
version to be passed in the parliament. In fact, they virtually want to
override parliament’s independent review, and dictate their own terms in this
regard. Their uncompromising attitude towards any deviation from it has created
the present impasse. Let us try to understand why they are acting so defiant? What is there in the Government draft, which made
them so much impatient?
It
appears both the parties are eager to protect their own interests in their own
domain. The government wants to have its
greater say in the constitution and running of Lokpal, and at the same time,
tries to protect its functionaries from the harassment of frequent frivolous
complaints, as expected to be a defeating outcome of this exercise. The
activists on the other hand want to keep themselves out of this scrutinizing process
and reject any accountability of making charges, whatever may be the basis and
motivation of the complainants. As many of them run through private patronage
and work in forming NGOs and Societies, they also want to keep the
functionaries of these organizations, out of the gambit of Lokpal. They consider
that it may lead to possible harassment from the Government. However,
it does not fit with their vision of justice from a Lokpal, as an independent
body, free from the intervention of Government.
Heroes and villains
The
basic presumption of anticorruption lobby is that the source of corruption is
Government machinery. To substantiate this argument, they cite evidences
of roles of a section of MPs / MLAs/ Ministers/
Judges/ Bureaucrats / Public servants, etc., on scams, those came into surface
in recent years. They hail roles of journalists and media, civil right
activists, retired judges, and lawyers for exposing the corruption, and want to
strengthen the process through formation of Lokpal, their own version of
Lokpal. To them corruption is a result of aberration of an individual’s own
integrity and honesty. For tackling them the society requires vigilance on
these functionaries. As there are
villains, there should be heroes as well in this highly tensed drama. Our
heroes, with the help of Lokpal, will punish these unruly horses. So self-styled
guardians of our civil society are hogging the limelight of media, and posing
themselves as the messiah of corruption-free India. For the Government and the
political parties backed up by business houses and private sectors, it is very
convenient to subscribe this theory. They need not look into social causes and
face various unpleasant questions on the source of corruption. To them a
fasting Anna is more than welcome, than a Sharmila of Manipur. So Lokpal is the
right choice for the right moment. Only it is a matter of bargaining between
our politicians and so called guardians; how they will use the Lokpal for their
glory and maneuvering.
Color of corruption
The
question, which remains unuttered in this process, is the role of corporate
houses in systematic corrupt practices in Government machinery. Every scam is associated with big and small
corporate houses. It is difficult to leave exception of any particular big business
house, which has not taken part in this game. Even usual judicial procedure recently
indicted a few higher officials of those corporations, and put them on trial. It
is their money power that corrupts or attempts to corrupt individuals in every
sphere, whether it is Sarkari or Besarkari. It is a recurring phenomenon, and
still Lokpal is meant for checking the Government functionaries only. There is
no check or vigilance on the practices in the corporate house, on their
employment of lobbyists, hosting social gatherings, influencing media coverage,
participating in various Government committees and influencing decision on
promoting their business, etc. There is no mention what punishment society
should reserve for them for amassing wealth through these means. Even within
these corporations, there are corruptions related to stealing employee’s
benefits, evading taxes, etc. Lokpal is silent on these matters. In the rhetoric of our anti-corruption
activists, not a single word is spared on these matters. One may argue that
there are other laws for handling them. But are they effective to tackle them?
Then, why should not a separate institution like Lokpal be formed for tackling
them? It is unfortunate that our so called civil society and also the media
promoting them are silent on this issue, when the color of corruption becomes ‘Besarkari’.
There are awards and patronage for them from these corporations. A section of
media is also run by big corporate houses. Naturally, they should not pursue these
unpleasant questions with the same zeal, they showed otherwise for the ‘Sarkari’
corruption. The same is true for political parties and their Governments
protecting vested interests of these houses. In this regard, there is little
difference between Annaji and Soniaji. They are brothers and sisters on the
same boat.
22/08/2011
22/08/2011
