Government V/S Anna- Caution: danger is ahead

             

          When Anna seat on fast in the month of April to bring strong lokpal bill, people of this country supported him whole heartedly not only because people were tired of rampant corruption but also because people were disheartened to see that government doesn’t want to curb corruption rather they are trying to make fool out of us by enacting a toothless Lokpal bill ( I have discussed about this and all other technical aspects of Lokpal in my previous article Lokpal to Jan Lokpal, those who haven’t read it please read it first). Looking at the mood of people government declared that they are ready to form joint committee to prepare the draft of Lokpal bill comprising of the members of civil society. Government was no saint in accepting Anna’s demands. Their announcement was intended to buy some time sabotage this movement. 

            Accordingly government on the one hand employed Amar, Kapil and Digvijay to vilify Anna and his team and on the other hand started creating obstacles in the meeting of drafting committee. Looking at the success and popularity of Anna’s movement Baba Ramdev also jumped in the running train. He started his circus on the name of bringing black money from Swiss banks. However unlike Anna Baba Ramdev was not doing it with any noble motive. His intention was to gain cheap publicity so that he can corner some votes in upcoming Loksabha election by forming a new political party. However Ramdev proved to be immature in dealing with shrewd government. Government pulled air from Baba’s movement by playing the master move of showing the letter signed by Baba’s aide Balkrishna which promised to end the fast.

           This fiasco of Baba’s movement injected false confidence in government that they can also tackle Anna with similar strategy. However Anna was grand old player of this game and his associates like Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejarival have worked with government so they knew all the strategies of government and their remedies. As was expected government declared that they will prepare the draft of Lokpal bill without members of civil society and will introduce it in upcoming monsoon session in parliament. The bill prepared by government was not meant to curb the corruption rather the provision of this bill were made to punish the complainants.

             Naturally Anna declared that if government did not introduce the Jan Lokpal bill prepared by his team in parliament than he will seat on fast from 16^th of August. Government initially argued

Source:By Kritish Bhatt(www.bamulahija.com/

that there is no need for Anna to seat on fast since the bill is in front of standing committee and Anna and his team should maintain sanctity of Parliament. Congress have always put forward the argument of sanctity and dignity of constitutional institutions when they don’t want to work, whether it is matter of taking decision on Afzal’s capital punishment or taking action against corrupt ministers. When this argument did not work they arrested Anna under preventive detention. This turned the anger of whole country and government was compelled to leave Anna within 12 hours. Anna got unimaginable support of people and now government was on back foot. 

          As I said in this whole issue government behaved shrewd, rude and betrayed people but is Anna and company right in all their demands? Today when Anna and his movement is getting so much support it is necessary for us to discuss about the validity of his stand, because with great powers comes great responsibility.

              First of all I am not in the support of burning the copies of bill which was produced in the Parliament. Even if the bill was weak and we wanted to protest against it there were other ways of protest like oral protest but burning the copies of bill which was introduced in parliament is not acceptable.

              Two days ago when Standing committee of parliament gave advertisements in news papers to ask for peoples suggestion on governments Lokpal bill, Arvind Kejariwal said it’s a waste of time, there is no meaning in asking people’s suggestion on this bill since it is a weak bill. Later on in the evening in an interview on news channel when Kejariwal was asked that it is a procedure according to democratic system that cabinet approves the bill drafted by government and it is introduced in parliament and then it is forwarded to standing committee who ask for peoples suggestions and then with its recommendations standing committee sends the bill in parliament which enacts it so don’t you believe in this system? He said “time has ripe to challenge this system because in this system only few bureaucrats in the ministry form the bill which is approved by cabinet and standing committee takes opinion of few people and that too are rejected in most cases by parliament and the bill is framed as it is. This is not democracy, our constitution makers wanted to create representative democracy where M.P’s will work according to people’s wish who elected them but here once they are elected by people they work according to the wish of party high command. Actually government should take referendum on Lokpal bill to know what people want”.

 

                  Strange it may sound that on the one hand Kejariwal talks about taking referendum and on the other hand he is not even letting the government to ask people for their suggestion. So what if the government’s bill is flawed while giving their suggestion people can say that so and so provision of Lokpal are encouraging corruption hence they should be excluded from the bill and so and so provision should be included to strengthen the bill. This way even government’s bill can be improved by democratic way. Secondly, on the one hand he talks about taking nationwide referendum and other hand Anna says that bill should be passed in parliament before 30^th of August. Do this people have slightest of idea that how much time it takes to conduct nationwide referendum? It’s not similar to that of doing a survey in Kapil sibbal’s constituency. It may take at least 3 to 4 months to conduct such referendum but with Anna’s ultimatum of August 30^th how is it possible?

              Four days ago when Kejariwal was answering the question of people in Ramlila ground someone asked him that what will he do if government introduced his Jan Lokpal bill in parliament and then parliament rejects some of its provision? He said government is in majority in parliament hence it should not be difficult for government to pass the whip to all its M.Ps to vote in favor of Jan Lokpal and get the bill pass. Another irony this is because on the one side he says that it is not representative democracy it is autocracy that M.Ps listen to their party high command and on the other side he says that government should get his bill passed by issuing the whip.

                His whole argument lies on the only logic that his version of Lokpal bill is people’s bill since so many people are supporting him but he is forgetting that people are not supporting him because they think that his bill is perfect rather people are supporting Anna because they are fed up of corruption and government’s attitude. Most of those who support Anna’s campaign still don’t know the technical details of Lokpal because they are not constitutional experts but they have faith in Anna and similar amount of mistrust in government hence they have joined this campaign but using their trust to push the undue demands is not right.

             Even Anna’s bill is not completely flawless it has some serious problems like they want judiciary to be included in per view of Lokpal but inclusion of judiciary was not there in the original principles of Lokpal. Of course corruption in judiciary should be nailed out but for that separate “Judicial accountability bill” should be brought. I know present version of government’s “Judicial accountability bill is complete crap it will complicate matters further but it can be redrafted however that doesn’t mean we should include everything under the sky in Lokpal. Nor can we put CBI and CVC under the ambit of Lokpal since CBI not only solves the cases of corruption it also handles cases of high profile murders, interstate crime and various other things which has nothing to do with either Lokpal or Corruption.

               Kejariwal is against multiplicity of agencies in fight against corruption as I have said in my previous article too that if we put everything under Lokpal then vastness of Lokpal’s work will grow to an extent that it will be unable to work efficiently. The more serious concern is about too much concentration of power. If we put all constitutional agencies under Lokpal and then if Lokpal turns corrupt or autocrat what will we do? Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. In a country like India where P.M, M.P’s and Judges of Supreme court and High court have faced and are facing the charges of corruption what is the guaranty of Lokpal proving to be a 24 carat gold? we are giving so much power in the hands of Lokpal but Just imagine if Lokpal himself goes out of control than who will control him?

            I supported Anna’s movement earlier and I am still supporting him because he is sincere, he is fighting for our cause and the most important I am in the favor of strong Lokpal. However strong Lokpal doesn’t mean autocratic Lokpal. Some of the people near him are misleading him but he should be aware of the fact that arrogance and stubbornness in attitude may culminate this movement in popular autocracy and will lead him to similar fate where earlier J.P movement had gone. People thrown away Congress in 1977 and coronated Janta government only to bring congress back in 1980.

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Lokpal to Jan Lokpal

              I have taken extempore decision to write this article in order to support the cause of Anna Hazare’s hunger strike. It is not unknown fact that Corruption in India is growing day by day like a princess of fairy tell, everyday new scams are coming out. The number of scams and sum of money involved in it has grown so large that if we can recover the amount lost in scams of past 10 years and use it for national development than India can become a developed country in next 10 year, but unfortunately this responsibility lies on the shoulders of those people who themselves are responsible for such rampant corruption. Naturally politicians neither from ruling parties nor from opposition are willing to take concrete action to curb corruption because if they do so than their own skeleton of corruption might come out. Because of this they have adopted their old policy of killing the time by appointing commissions and committees and by offering show peace resignations. Latest in the series of political drama is government’s urgency to enact Lokpal Bill to end corruption. Naturally laymen’s mind is filled up with lot of questions like what is Lokpal bill? What is its history? Why government is showing so urgency to enact this bill and why Anna Hazare is opposing it? 

               Although I have given some glimpses of the features of Lokpal bill in my first article “Corruption: The cancer of India” but today let’s discuss the history, revolutionary features and the roots of recent controversy over Lokpal bill in detail. In 1966 the 1^st Administrative reform commission was set up to conduct inquiry in the working of India’s administrative system and suggests some measures by which efficiency, transparency and effectiveness of Indian Administration can be increased. The commission submitted 20 reports in which 581 recommendations were incorporated out of which the most important and revolutionary recommendation was to setting up of Lokpal and Lokayukta institutions to permanently end the corruption. The idea was conceived from the inspiration of Ombudsman system in Scandinavian countries and Parliamentary commissioner in New Zealand. In these countries cases of corruption by ministers and higher officials is investigated by an independent authority called Ombudsman.

Principles suggested by 1^st ARC in the establishment of Lokpal - 

1) It should be an independent and impartial body. 

2) Appointment of Lokpal should be as far as possible, non political.

3) Lokpal should investigate cases of not only corruption but also injustice and favoritism.

4) Investigation and proceedings of Lokpal should be conducted in private and should be of informal character.

5) Lokpal should get whatever information including official documents relevant to investigation.

6) Status of Lokpal should be equivalent to that of highest judicial authority in the country.

7) Proceedings of Lokpal should not be subject to judicial interference.

          These principles were revolutionary in nature which if implemented properly could struck a major blow to the regime of corruption, if not end the corruption permanently. Because of this no government was interested in setting up of Lokpal and hence till now nine attempts have been made to enact a statute for setting up of Lokpal, however no bill could ever became a law. Last time this bill was introduced in 2006 which lapsed with the dissolution of 14^th Loksabha. The salient features of this bill were as mentioned below.

Structure- Lokpal is to be a three member body with a chairperson who is or has been a chief justice or judge of the Supreme Court; and it’s two other members who are or have been judges or chief justices of high courts around the country. 

Appointment-The chairperson and members shall be appointed on the recommendation of a committee consisting of. (a) The Vice-President (Chairman) (b) The PM (c) The Speaker of LS (d) Home Minister (e) Leader of the House, other than the house in which PM is a member. (f) Leaders of Opposition of both the houses. 

Independence-  The Lokpal is ineligible to hold any office of profit under Government of India or of any state, or similar such posts after retirement. Fixed tenure of three years and can be removed only on the ground of proven misbehavior or incapacity after an inquiry made by CJI and two senior most judges of SC. Lokpal will have its own administrative machinery for conducting investigations. He shall present annual reports of investigation to the President and the latter has to put it before the both houses of parliament accompanying the action taken report.

Powers- Lokpal can investigate the cases of corruption in administration of the country, either on somebody’s complaint or on a sou-motto (on his own discretion) basis. The Lokpal will inquire into complaints alleging that a public functionary has committed an offence punishable under the prevention of corruption act, 1988. The expression ‘public functionary’ covers all the three categories of union ministers including the Prime minister and the members of parliament. Judges of Supreme Court and high courts were kept out of the purview of Lokpal. It has been vested with the powers of a civil court in respect of summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person and examining him on oath. The bill provides for an open court or if the Lokpal wishes in camera proceedings. The proceedings have to be completed within six months, with a provision of extension of six more months. 

              Above mentioned bill also meet same fate which its predecessor meet. Like a masala Hindi movie story takes a twist from here, after so many years government suddenly wakes up and announces to introduce Lokpal bill in the next session of Loksabha and to speed up the process, also forms a Group of minister to prepare the draft of Lokpal bill. However this draft of Lokpal bill is not similar to the bill presented last time in the parliament. This new law is like a paper tiger, its sting have been removed by breaking its teeth and claws. Let’s glance through the draft prepared by Group of ministers.

1) Lokpal can take action against politicians only, bureaucrats are kept out of the purview of Lokpal.

2) Lokpal will not have sou-motto power to initiate investigation against erring politicians. He can act only after the case is referred by speaker of Loksabha and chairman of Rajya sabha.

3) Lokpal’s role is only of advisory nature according to the draft bill that means like CVC he can only give recommendations and can’t initiate criminal charges by launching FIR.

4) No provision for the recovery of money from the responsible people.

5) It is mandatory for Lokpal to finish the investigation within a period of a year, but no such time limit is fixed for judicial probe to conclude.

6) Selection committee to appoint Lokpal will comprise Vice President, PM, Leaders of house other than which in PM seats, Leader of opposition in both the houses, home minister and law minister.

7) Complainants making frivolous complaints can be sentenced. 

8) Lokpal will not include public grievances mechanism.

        Naturally this is nothing but an impotent anti corruption law of which there is no dearth in India’s legal system. Anna Hazare and other eminent personalities like Dr. Kiran Bedi, Justice Santosh Hegde the Lokayukta of Karnataka, Swami Agnivesh the Arya samajist social reformer, J.M. Lingdoh the former CEC , Arvind Kejariwal, Prashant Bhushan senior advocate of SC and many others are fighting against such vasectomy of Lokpal institution. They have prepared the draft of strong Jan Lokpal bill and have demanded the formation of committee to prepare the draft of new Lokpal bill which is to be presented in next Loksabha session. Let’s glance through the draft of Jan Lokpal bill.

1) Lokpal can take action against politicians, bureaucrats and judges of higher judiciary.

2) Lokpal will have suo-motto power to initiate investigation against erring persons and can also act on complaints received from citizens. 

3) Lokpal can launch FIR and can prosecute criminal charges against corrupt person.

4) Lokpal can order recovery of money lost because of corruption from responsible people.

5) Lokpal can award punishment of minimum 5 years and maximum life imprisonment to people who will be found guilty.

6) Financial penalty for frivolous complaints.

7) Time limit will be of two year, one year for the investigation and one for the judicial probe.

8) CEC, C&AG and other eminent personalities should also be included in the selection committee.

           Now you can see the difference between real and pseudo anti corruption law. Although I disagree with some of the points of the draft prepared by India Against Corruption like giving prosecution powers to Lokpal. Since this may result in diversification of judicial powers from SC and HC’s and it may lead to clashes between SC and Lokpal in long term. It might also create huge backlog of corruption cases pending in front of Lokpal since there is no scarcity of corruption cases in India and it is doubtful that body of 10 person can clear all the cases within a prescribed span of time, provision of life imprisonment is also doubtful. It is my personal view that provision of setting up of fast track anti corruption courts should be included in Lokpal bill and prosecution powers should be transferred to these courts and like TADA there should be a provision that appeal against orders of these courts can be done in SC only.

 

         In spite of some differences I support the Anna Hazare’s movement because it is not about Lokpal it is about appeal to people’s conscience against corruption. For the first time after JP movement people have come up together irrespective their cast, class, region, religion etc. and the most important thing is that this movement is about constructive reform of system rather than destructive revolution against system. Hence I am with this movement are you?

Read more: Government V/S Anna- Caution: danger is ahead

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Corruption: The Cancer of India

            Corruption is the hottest topic to be discussed and debated on TV shows, five star hotels, tea stoles, drawing room, offices and every possible place where four Indians meet together. Most salient feature of these discussions is that every person who participate in the discussion starts acting like a self appointed judge and unlike our traditional judicial system which takes years and decades to punish the culprits (or to release the culprits!). Here under the sudden attack of patriotism quick and entertaining judgments are passed. Corrupt people should be hanged, all politicians should be sent to Pakistan, limbs of corrupt officers should be thrown to dogs, politicians should be fried in hot oil and many other kind of punishments. By doing all this we feel that we have done a great work of patriotism, as for us patriotism means cursing politicians, bureaucrats and blaming the system. Because it easily allows us to shed the responsibility of corruption from ourselves, in fact it also gives us a chance to indulge in corruption by saying when the whole system is corrupt how I alone can remain unaffected. 

        Before proceeding further let us glance through some statistics of corruption so that you understand the intensity and range of corruption in India. Media has provided lot of news and statistics about all the scams mentioned below so I will not elaborate it much.

• 2G Spectrum scam - 1,76,465 crore  `
• Common Wealth Games-  70,000 crore  `
• Madhu koda’s scam- 8000 crore  `
• Abdul karim Telgi fake stamp paper scam- 32000 crore `
• Scorpion submarine scam- 18,000 crore  ` (Accused former naval chief Admiral Sushil kumar)
• Sukhna land scam and Adarsh land scam- involves Armed forces land worth thousands of crore  ` And also involves top Army commanders like General Deepak Kapoor, Lt. General P.K Rath, Lt. General Shantanu Chaudhri, Lt. General Avdhesh Prakash and As many others.

Let us diagnose what are the reasons that the venom of corruption is running so deep in our veins?

1) Democracy- First of all roots of corruption are buried in our democratic setup. To contest election lot of money is required and due to this ordinary people can't contest election and those who stand in elections either have ancestral money or have earned this money through corrupt practices. Mayawati who was a poor school teacher few years ago has now a property of 52 crore `, Prakash singh badal the former chief minister of Punjab has a property worth 1000 crore `, Mulayam singh Yadav has a property of billions of `. These are just few examples to quote, but the ground reality is that 300 M.P’s in 15^th Loksabha are multi millionaires. What do you think these people are pouring their money for charity? Certainly not, for them this is an investment for which they will get rich dividend. This dividend is in the form of amount earned through manipulation of govt. Funds, taking bribe, settling their keens on good positions, allotting government contracts to fraud and unqualified companies, take money for appointing officers on various posts.

2) Bourgeoisie society- System always stems from top to bottom. There is a proverb in Sanskrit" यथा राजा तथा प्रजा" which means like king like people. In Bhagwad Gita also it is said by lord Krishna यद यद आचरति श्रेष्ठस्त तददेवेतरोजनह: स यत प्रमाणं कुरुते लोकस्तदनुवर्तते" which means behavior of elite class people is considered as standard by lower class people and hence they follow it as ideal behavior. Today’s kings are our honorable M.P's, M.L.A's. and most of them are corrupt and shares criminal background (according to a survey of an independent NGO 150 MP’s in 15^th Loksabha have criminal records). Not only politicians but bureaucrats, commanders of armed forces and judges too are submerged in the mud of corruption. One retired Chief Justice of India had said that 20% judges of Supreme Court are corrupt and corruption is more ubiquitous in lower rungs of judiciary. Indian Army which was considered to be the holy cow of Indian democracy is also not spared from this. In such situation people feel that it is justifiable for them to indulge in corruption because if those who are on the top of hierarchy don't think about ethics than whom are we to care for ethics?

3) Corruption is an environmental phenomenon- A new born baby does not have notions of right and wrong but as it grows older gradually it learns what is socially acceptable and what is not. This social learning plays very important role in growth of civic sense. Have you ever wondered why is it that the person who breaks traffic rules in India, when goes to Singapore behaves very decently? No, it's not just the fear of fine that is restraining him but actually in India most of the people breaks the traffic laws and therefore no one is ashamed of it because everybody else is doing the same, where as in Singapore everyone follows the public etiquette and the law of land and hence no one dares to go against established norms of social behavior. In the countries like Denmark and Netherlands (which are least corrupt countries) corruption is considered as social evil and those who are involved in corruption have to face a kind of social boycott, hence very few people dare to indulge in corrupt practices. Unfortunately in India publicly we criticize politicians, bureaucrats and corporate for their corruption but privately people admire those who have earned money through illegal means. In such conditions corruption is bound to increase in society and as I said earlier corrupt people come from within the society.  To quote one senior judge of Supreme Court “judges too stay in society and share same social and moral values which other people share and if corruption is there in the society than it is going to be reflected in judiciary also, since we have not came from the heaven”.

4) Impotent and infertile laws- there are many laws to curtail corruption but unfortunately they are teeth less. They have so many loop holes that corrupt people easily escape from it and even if some of them are punished it take years to culminate the judicial process. If any politician or an officer of central government is found to be indulged in to corruption then complaint cannot be filed against them without the permission of central government. Central Vigilance Commission who is an independent agency to look after the cases of corruption in the central government employees can only give recommendation to concerned department regarding action to be taken on their officer, but its recommendation are not binding. Institutions like CBI, Anti Corruption Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax department and various other agencies are there to prevent corruption and financial irregularities, but there is lot of political interference in these agencies. Appointment, transfers and promotion of officers of these agencies is in the hands of politicians. CBI has become an agent of ruling party; it is used frequently to settle the score with opposition. In the past many instances have taken place when CBI has filled or withdrawn cases on people at the will of central government (remember Quatrochchi, Mulayam Singh and Mayawati case). Recent appointment of P.J Thomas as CVC is a vivid example of growing political interference in constitutional appointments. Thomas is accused of palm oil corruption case when he was chief secretary of Kerala and such person is appointed as CVC of India, whereas according to rules the person against whom FIR is filled is not even eligible for promotion. 

         After diagnosis of disease it is necessary to talk about cure, so what are the measures to reduce corruption?   

1) Strengthening of R.T.I- Right to information act 2005 is a revolutionary law which has penetrated in the age old secrecy regime of bureaucracy, but people still doesn’t have proper knowledge about it. For this information about profile and use of R.T.I should be included in curriculum of schools and colleges, R.T.I help centers needs to be established at village, taluka, ward (in urban and metropolitan areas) and district level. Government services and departments who are exempted from the preview of R.T.I needs to be shortened. The process of Computerization and digitalization of government records needs to be initiated.  

2) Lokpal- Indian system of Lokpal is based on Scandinavian Ombudsman system. 1^st Administrative reform commission had recommended to enact the law and establish the institution of lokpal to permanently end corruption. Read more about it- Lokpal to Jan Lokpal

 3) Reforms in police machinery-  as per the recommendations of supreme court and National police commission, police establishment board should be established which will look after the matters of appointment, promotion, transfer, suspension and dismissal so that political interference in the work of investigating agencies like CBI and Anti Corruption bureau can be reduced. Police officers should be provided with fix tenure of minimum 3 years so that menace of punishment posting and frequent transfer can be overcome.

4) More powers to C&AG- C&AG means Comptroller and Auditor General, who as a comptroller controls the money issued for the spending purpose and as an auditor audits the government accounts. In Britain C&AG has both the powers i.e. power of comptroller and power of auditor but unfortunately in India C&AG only audits the government accounts and give its recommendation to parliament, then it becomes duty of parliament to take action on the report of C&AG, but in parliament ruling party either due to their majority or with the connivance of opposition suppress it and matter is rejected as C&AG’s over cautiousness.

5)  Right to recall- similar to U.S India should also enact a law of right to recall so that those M.P’s and M.L.A’s who are not working properly can be called back by the people of their constituency. So that fraud M.P’s and M.L.A’s like Govinda who shows there face only during election campaign can be get rid of. For this in every constituency one representative committee of some highly educated and respected people has to be created which will keep record of promises and commitments done by their leader during election campaign and will present peoples wishes and their problem to the elected representative and if he/she doesn’t work properly than he/she can called back by a referendum.

6) People’s awareness- Last but not least is people’s awareness and readiness to eradicate corruption. Nothing is going to change if people are not ready to change. Rather than blaming the system and politicians we should first fix our responsibility for the pathetic situation of the country. Corrupt people don’t come from Mars and Venus, they are the product of our society and while blaming politicians and bureaucrats about their corruption we simply forget about our corruption. Who sells subsidized domestic gas cylinder in black market? Who gives bribe to traffic constable after breaking traffic rules? Who travels in the train without ticket? Who manipulates electricity meters? The answer is "we the people of India". Somebody may argue that although common people also indulge in corruption but their corruption is not as serious as corruption of politicians and bureaucrats, since  the bribe taken by traffic constable or amount earned through black marketing of domestic gas cylinder is negligible in comparison to frauds done by A.Raja or Suresh Kalmadi. To some extent this argument may seem to be true, but we should not forget here that indulging or not indulging in corruption is matter of conscience, but amount of bribe is matter of opportunity. It’s not that common men doesn't indulge in corruption as huge as that of A.Raja's, because his conscience doesn't allows him to do so, it's simply because he hasn't got the opportunity to do such a great work. How can you say that a constable who takes 50 ` bribe will not take 5 crore or 500 crore ` bribe if given a chance? Remember the case of 1993 serial bomb blast, when RDX was landed on Mumbai dockyard with the help of 3 policemen by paying them millions of  ` as bribe. The police men who took bribe were knowing that what harm RDX can cause to Mumbai but still there conscience didn't stop them, because their conscience had died on the very same day when they had taken bribe for the first time.

          It's very easy to pelt stones at others but we need to look in our own conscience. If we have to eradicate corruption than rather than releasing emotional outbursts of punishing politicians and wasting our brain in crap ideas like those mentioned above we need to accept the responsibility on our shoulders too and from next time whenever we do anything wrong or illegal work we must think that we are no better than A.Raja and Suresh Kalmadi.

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