janLOKPAL and Anna Hassare

The Jan Lokpal Bill 

The Jan Lokpal bill is a draft anti corruption bill put forwarded by a prominent civil society activists group India Against Corruption (IAC) to set up a Jan Lokapal, which is an independent body that would investigate corruption cases, complete the investigation within a year and envisages trial in the case getting over in the next one year.
Justice Santosh Hegde (former Supreme Court Judge and former Lokayukta of Karnataka), Prashant Bhushan (Supreme Court Lawyer) and Arvind Kejriwal (RTI activist) are the major players behind the draft Bill. It develops a system which will send a person to jail within two years of the complaint being made against him proved true and his ill-gotten wealth being confiscated. It also seeks power to the Jan Lokpal to prosecute politicians and bureaucrats without government permission. Later noted personalities like
Kiran Bedi (Retired IPS officer)  Swami Agnivesh, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Mallika Sarabhai were became a part of the movement which commonly called India Against Corruption.

Anna Hassare

The movement really got an impetus when Anna Hazare, anti-corruption crusader joined with IAC. He was a social activist not so popular outside Maharasthra. A Gandhian, now 71 successfully came forefront with the demand of a strong Jan Lokpal to curb corruption and he went on a fast-unto-death in April, demanding that this Bill, drafted by the civil society, be adopted. Four days into his fast, the government surrendered under Hazzare and agreed to set up a joint committee with an equal number of members from the government and civil society. But the confrontation between Government and IAC had been strengthening due to the differences in the bill. The government has introduced a bill in the Parliament which was against the views of Anna Team.  Governmnet resisted the intention of JanLokpal that make Judiciary and Prime Minister under the ambit of Lokpal.

The proposed bill of Anna Hassare has the following features.  

1.  An institution called LOKPAL at the centre and LOKAYUKTA in each state will be set up
2. Like Supreme Court and Election Commission, they will be completely independent of the governments. No minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence their investigations
3. Cases against corrupt people will not linger on for years anymore: Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial should be completed in next one year so that the corrupt politician, officer or judge is sent to jail within two years.
4. The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction.
5. Its members will be selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities through a completely transparent and participatory process.
6. Any complaint against any officer of Lokpal shall be investigated and the officer dismissed within two months.
7. It will be the duty of the Lokpal to provide protection to those who are being victimized for raising their voice against corruption.

In the back ground of Government opposition Anna decided to start fasting and call for a second independence war. People from all walks of life joined united under the voice of Anna and Government forced to control the situation. But the action of Delhi Police to stop Hassare made the situation worst. Arrest of Anna and related incidents got global attention and foreign media celebrated it as a serious tension in India. Later UPA understood that this will not be a similar situation like the incident of Irom Sharmila, who has been on fast (but forcefully fed by government) for the past 10 yras demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Power Act in Manipur).

Lok Pal and Anna Hassare – A criticism

Observers clearly worried about the threat of an indefinite fast becoming an instrument of blackmail in the hands of a self styled civil society leaders.  It is true that if 1,456 Lac Crores black money comes back to India, it will be sufficient to wash out whole poverty from our nation. So the intention of Hazzare to curb corruption is most welcoming but his strategy to black mail Parliament by a most renowned and ethical method – Sthyagraha still stands as a question? Satyagraha is a last resort after exhausting all alternatives. But Hazzare suddenly initiated his fast without waiting the governments request for consultation and NAC’s recommendations. Thus Anna breached the basic principle of a Satygrahi – Tolerance/Patience.

The constitution gives autonomy to judiciary and executives, means both are independent. The authority to make law vested on Parliament. Government approved all the six demands of Anna Team and requested them to wait for the review. It was for the first time in the history of independent India that civil society representatives have been included in the drafting committee of a bill.  Breaching the law, Anna started unwanted fasting and demanded Janta Mantir as his venue for fasting. The draft Jan Lokpal Bill developed by Anna Team seeking to bring the Prime Minister, MPs and judges under the ambit of Lok Pal is a fraught with danger to the very existence of parliamentary democracy under which Legislature and Judiciary were most sacrosanct. And any unwanted allegations against Prime Minister will affect the ruling party and even ruling government. Subsequent to this that will lead to national unrest and instability. So the suggestion by the Parliament to bring PM under Lokpal after his tenure is most suited. Another observation which we have is, all the PM’s of India so far are not much corrupted and it is a strategy of the ruling party to keep their image. Regarding judiciary, there is strong bill called Judiciary Accountability Bill which waits for approval in Loka sabha can effectively control judiciary. Additionally, public servants can be prosecuted for corruption under the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. In short, this is’ a movement to overrun Indian Parliament democracy’. 

The bill was for the first time presented during the fourth Lok Sabha in 1968, and was passed there in 1969. It was revived in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and 2008.and it is a question why Anna had been silent all the times. Adding vigor to his doubtful intention, he praised Narendra Modi – the brain behind Godra incident (how Modi’s criminal masterminding of the 2002 communal riots in Gujarth would be worthy of emulation) and another BJP Leader Notish Kumar.A leading members of IAC, Shanti Bhushan was a former central minister of law, BJP member. Prasanth Bhushan his son also in the same committee, critics called it as an instance of nepotism. There are so many allegations against him also.

In the midst of these struggles, foreign media has colored it very well with most suitable captions. Pakistan is celebrating and US alarming that India in a hangover of Middle East tension. There was another argument that, it was motivated by US to deteriorate the world largest democratic country and its democratic values. 

Can we assure that Anna Hazzare is a representative of civil society and India Against Corruption (IAC) is an authoritative system to represent common people? Is it a unanimous voice of 125 lakhs people? And if ‘yes’ , better is Anna and his team should come through the process. Then only they can clearly claim as representative of mass.

I think the statement of Prime Minister is sufficient to answer all our questions on Anna Hassare and his effort. “However, I am not aware of any constitutional philosophy or principle that allows anyone to question the sole prerogative of Parliament to make a law. But differences of opinion must be resolved through dialogue and consensus. Those who believe that their voice — and their voice alone — represents the will of 1.2 billion people should reflect deeply on that position. They must allow the elected representatives of the people in Parliament to do the job that they were elected for.”

Lastly, India is a country with an elaborate, comprehensive and all inclusive constitution and a penal code. And who knows the Lok ball committee will be corruption free even if it will be selected by supreme powers. The huge man power requirement for the setting up of Lok Janpal Team will be burden to Government and People.
At the same time corruption is very rampant from bottom to top. What we need is responsible citizens with courageous mind, vibrant and alert attitude. Act against corruption in each incident even it is painful (think about any situations that we have responded with vigor)  . There is no other magic wand to dominate this evil and remember that Jan Lokapal is not a magical instrument to curtail all the corruption in India. 

I love my India and love to see a corruption free India. Hats off to Anna Hassare if he genuinely represent people without any external influences and unwanted intentions. Thanks to know he eases his stringent stand that was forcing PM and Judiciary to comes under the ambit of Jan Lokpal.     

Lets unite for a corruption free India and work for the same... not globally but locally. Not through great words but through small actions.