Arunachal Pradesh: All is not well

      When India lost war against China in 1962 it led to huge uproar in parliament. Whole nation was angry because people (rightly) felt that Jawaharlal Nehru’s feeble foreign and defence policy was responsible for this fiasco. Finally Nehru was compelled to answer about this debacle in parliament. Nehru attempted to reduce the the impact of his blunder by giving a justification in parliament that “The land which we lost in this war was barren. Not a single piece of grain grows there and hence it is not a significant loss”. All the M.P’s were aghast to listen such a shameless justification from Nehru. No one had anticipated Nehru will descend so low. In those circumstances Rajaji stood up and removed his cap. He showed his bald head to Nehru and said “look at my head jawaharlalji it is completely bald. Not a single hair grows on my head like that barren land where as you say a single piece of grain doesn’t grow, but still I wear the cap to protect it from cold, heat and rain. Because even if it is bald it is my head and it is my duty to protect it. Similarly even if the land was barren it was our land and as a P.M of the nation it was your duty to protect it, but you failed miserably. Nothing can justify your inability".  

         I recollected this incident because in last month two important news came which did not bother many in India except few defence experts. 1) China started sea trials of its 68,000 ton aircraft carrier Varyag and 2) China deployed missiles capable of delivering nukes deep inside India along with Arunachal Pradesh border. China’s claim on 90,000 Km. territory of Arunachal Pradesh is not unknown to anyone. China's seriousness is evident from it's policy of allowing people of Arunachal pradesh in China without visa. China argues that Arunachal is their territory so people residing in Arunachal are Chinese citizen hence they needn’t require visa to enter in China.

image source- via Wikipedia

        China has built railway lines in Tibet and highways extending from the main land China to Sino-Indian border. China is also building various dams on Brahmaputra River by which India will not only loose 40,000 M.Wt of Hydroelectricity but whole North-East will become vulnerable to floods and droughts created by China. China is encircling India by building military bases and extending hand of friendship to neighboring countries of India like Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar and Sri lanka. China’s affection for Pakistan is not hidden from anyone. Earlier China has given J-10 super fighter to Pakistan and now it is helping Pakistan to built Khushab nuclear reactor from which Pakistan can extract plutonium for its nukes.

             China is determined to amalgamate Arunachal Pradesh in their territory by hook or crook, on the contrary Indian government’s response to this grave situation is as usual lousy. We don’t have railway lines connecting Arunachal with the rest of India. Most of the roads are still as miserable as they were in 1962. Under the name of preparedness Indian government has started some infrastructural projects in last few years, however they are all far behind projected time. Indian Army had recently requested Ministry of Defence to form two special mountain division dedicated to play offensive against China in the course of war, but reports says Babu’s sitting in the MoD have raised objection on cost included in forming mountain division. Since last many years Army is demanding 1500 new Howitzers but because of Bofors ghost MoD is reluctant to buy new howitzers. In the mountain warfare Howitzer, Multi barrel rocket launcher and assault rifle are the key weapons. Howitzers are necessary to attack and neutralize enemy sitting on the top of mountain. The only silver line in grey cloud is recent awakening of Indian Air-force by opening air fields near Chinese border and  deployment SU-30 MKI in the Tejpur and Chusul airbase of Assam.

            In last 49 years our attitude hasn’t change much towards the security of Arunachal Pradesh. During 62 war our soldiers didn’t have enough bullets, snow boots and carbines to give an effective fight, even though situation is not that bad but even China isn’t remain Communist China of Mao’s regime. Today’s China has become super power which is even bullying U.S, leave India. Our Defence minister A.K Antony is famous for his indecisive attitude. Fearful of 3C’s C&AG, C.V.C AND C.B.I defence minister is not ready to take decision on even urgent issues, since he cares more about his blemish free image. Although government assures “all is well’, but how can we rely on their assurance when their various assurances given after 26/11 have been proved foul. 

          Just last month a merchant ship called M.V.Pavit accidently landed on Indian shores and remained there for 100 hours and neither Navy nor coast Guard had any information about it. Last week few terrorists came and carried on explosion near Delhi high court and security agencies are still clueless. Our so called 'honest' P.M Man Mohan Singh is already walking along the lines of Nehru. In 2009 when a question was raised in parliament about Chinese intrusion in India territory, he replied “It’s true that Chinese soldiers have penetrated into the Indian Territory but the intrusion was not of very significant nature”.

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Your vote is precious don’t waste it by giving it to undeserving person

               When we go to market to buy the vegetables we pick the vegetable then we check its color, hardness, its odor and if after checking from all the sides we don’t find it of good quality than we go to another shop, again we repeat the process and keep repeating until we are not satisfied. After being satisfied about quality we bargain for price. With full enthusiasm we argue in front of vendor to save as much money as possible. After being satisfied about various aspects like quality, price, freshness and many other finally we buy the vegetables. Why do we take so much effort to save just few bucks? Because 1) we want to get full value of our money and 2) we don’t want to look full in front of an unknown vendor to buy an inferior or an overpriced product. 

         Perhaps India is the only country in the world where people almost turn into FBI agent when they find Bride or Groom for their Son or Daughter. We give advertisement in newspapers, Community newsletter and websites to find a good match. We ask our relatives, friends and everyone whom we know to suggest good girl or boy. Once we find him/her we do various inquiries about their cast, sub-cast, religion, age, family background, education, Job, financial status, character, nature, locality of residence, compatibility and what not. Since last decade trend of hiring detective agencies to get the complete information has also become in thing. Now people also hack the Facebook account of opposite person (this is latest trend) to know about that persons friends, past relations and actual personality. After doing this all we also don’t forget to match horoscope of boy and girl. Because it’s a question of our beloved ones future, how can we not take every possible precaution to ensure happy married life before binding our darlings in a lifelong bond? 

          When foreigners listen to this they feel astonished because they directly go to mall pick the vegetable and pay the price as written on board. Even in case of marriage they very quickly fall in love or feel attracted toward each other, than they get laid with each other, also become parents and after that if they feel that they can live with each other than they get married otherwise say bye. However in India we do everything with proper planning, we foresee about future from every aspect and then only we take the decision whether it is about buying a vegetable or bringing a bride for son. After all India is a great Country we own great culture, great traditions, great rituals, and great people everything is great here. 

         But wait, I have a small confusion in my mind which I want to put in front of you before issuing a certificate of excellence to Incredible India. If we are so great, intelligent and foresight full people than why we are toiling in poverty, suffering rampant corruption, weighing inefficient bureaucracy and are crushed by hyper inflation. Now I am not in a mood to produce statistics about all this, but do I really need to give any data? Don’t we have enough personal experience about it, especially in last few years? When I did some brainstorming in order to find the answer of this question I realized that among other reasons our criminal negligence about electing good people has also been responsible for it.

•    153 M.P’s in present Loksabha are facing criminal charges, 74 among them are facing severe cases.

•        From coal mines of Jharkhand to Commonwealth of Delhi and mine allocation in Karnataka to Spectrum allocation at center everywhere scams of trillions and Zillions of  ` are coming out.

•     It costs approximately 23,000 ` to run the parliament every single minute and yet every now and then working parliament is disrupted.

•          M.P’s and M.L.A’s who are considered to be representatives of this great country show behavior worse than vendors of fish market in parliament.

•          Our so called Mr. clean P.M can’t even find a single clean man out of this country of 1170 million great people to become C.V.C of India.

•        Terrorists like Afzhal and Kasab are getting five star treatments and common man of this country is dying in bomb blasts like mosquitoes.

•         They ban films, books, paintings, dramas, peaceful demonstration and every other activity for their parochial politics and we burst out our frustration in TV screens while watching news channels.

            We always blame politicians for pathetic situation of nation (of course they are) but aren’t we also responsible to similar extent that we elect such corrupt, criminal and inefficient people to parliament and legislative assemblies which is known to be a temple of democracy. We buy vegetables after checking it 10 times, but we elect M.P without even checking ones. We do lot of research before our son or daughter's marriage but don ’t even have basic information about person and party whom we give our vote. If former is a question of our children’s future than isn’t latter is a matter of whole nation’s future. Isn’t it strange that we know the value of every single penny we don’t know the value of our vote. We won’t allow anyone to ruin future of our child but we allow greedy vultures to ruin the future of our nation. If it is our responsibility to find a good companion for our children, than it is also our responsibility to elect honest, efficient and expert people to rule the country. We bargain with vendor because we don’t want to look fool in front of a unknown vendor but but what about politicians who are making us fools since last 60 years. 

             Because of this reason I thought as a responsible citizen of this country I should do something. However, since I am a student and I have other responsibilities too, I can’t run a movement like Anna Hazare but at least we can spread awareness about this through whatever possible means we have. Because of my academic background I have some knowledge about political condition of this country hence I started this Cause to spread awareness and share the knowledge about political reforms. 

What are the objectives of this Cause

•         To make people aware about the value of their precious vote.

•          To inform and educate people about their political rights.

•          To share various tips like do’s and don’ts during election.

•       To create a platform to share experience of people about their M.Ps and  M.L.As.

•       To initiate healthy discussion on political reforms.

       Friends you can join the Cause by the widget on the top of sidebar. I am inviting all the readers of this blog to join this cause and invite others too. However my primary aim is not only to increase the number of members rather I want your active participation through discussion, tips, suggestion, sharing of experience and through whatever other means you can render your support for this Cause.

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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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Why Terror attacks are more serious threat than natural calamities or accidents

     A blogger named Bhagwad has argued in his blog that more people die in train accidents than in terror attacks, than why people's responses differ in both the cases. This is not the first time that he has argued about this, even earlier also he had put similar arguments in his articles.
 

Train Accidents or Terrorism – Which are you more afraid of?
 

Terrorism is Over Hyped – Creating Mass Hysteria
 

           I think he is not alone who argues like this there are many like him who argues like this and hence the comment which I have put on his blog is kept here in the form of post with little modification for the discussion.
 

         People’s response toward blast is more intense than train accidents, but it’s not just because people fear more from dying in bomb blast than from dying in train accidents. Actually people’s response in both the cases is born out of the combination of fear, anger and frustration. Of course people feel more anger and frustration in case of terror attacks than that of train accidents, because I and many others like me feel that terrorist attacks are more serious threat than train accidents.

Following are the psychological, social and political reasons behind my analogy.

1) Since train accident doesn’t involve any motive or ideology whereas bomb blast definitely do. Therefore people feel more rage after terror attacks than after train accidents. This is the reason people show much intense response when incidents like Nithari killings or Gang rape (in their respective locality) comes out than towards train accidents even though more people die in later case. Because, in a civilized society we can’t tolerate people living and roaming freely with such heinous intents whether it be terror attacks or gang rape or serial killings.
 

2) Train accident doesn’t involve such social aftermaths which a terror attack follows. Bomb blast divides society on a communal basis. In a society like India where we are already living with lot of mistrust and suspicion for each other, terror attacks done by someone with communal motives easily allows other community to blame the ‘particular community' for communal disharmony. It also strengthens prejudices in the minds of both the communities. This is the reason terms like Hindu terrorism and Islamic terrorism are gaining popularity in India. And the most disheartening thing is that Greedy politicians are using these feelings of fear and suspicion for their vote bank gains.
 

3)  Although communal riots are not considered as terror attacks but terror attacks plays a triggering role in sparking communal riots (1984 Anti Sikh riots). It works like a vicious circle. People indulge in communal riots to revenge bomb blast and more terror attacks are conducted by few petulant people to avenge communal riots.
 

4) Terror attacks are more harmful for the society because many fundamentalist people associate ideological proximity with these terrorists and aspire to become like them and convert others in their ideology (Love Jihad). Even those who don’t actively participate in attacks can passively help them by supplying funds, sympathy and ideological support. Remember how people of Pakistan were crying and mourning during the death of Osama bin laden. This type of ideological proximity with a terrorist is thousand times more harmful to the society in long term than the death of a hundred or thousand people in train accidents.
 

5) Terrorist attacks are not just killings of innocent people they are also war against state (as this is also one charge against Kasab in 26/11 case). In a civilized and a democratic society no one can be deprived of his/her life and liberty except for the violation of law (through legally established procedure). Terrorists by killing people in this way are directly challenging the authority of state. In fact fundamental aim of every terrorist organisation is to replace the state in long term. Whether it is Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, Naxalites in India or any other terrorist organisation. They all work with the sole aim of replacing the state and if they are taken casually they grow in strength and establish their parallel government.
 

6)  Anger and frustration showed by people after bomb blast is not just a result of that particular event. In fact it’s an accumulated rage of many other incidents like harm done to our economy by injecting fake currency in our economy, or Kashmir issue or infiltration on the borders and many other illegal activities like smuggling, drug peddling done by these terrorists. Bomb blast plays a triggering role to this. It’s similar to that of you feel anger on your boss because of various reasons but usually you don’t speak out, but one day your boss did something terrible enough to enrage you and you blow out all your anger on him. In this case that event when you lost your temper, just proved to be a triggering event for you but anger which came out was accumulated since long time.
 

7) As argued by another commentator Train accidents are preventable while terrorist attacks are harder to prevent if people are willing to blow themselves up, then how do you prevent that? if we accept this argument than this makes it even more dangerous. Because we can control train accidents whenever we decide to do so (and it’s not that government is not doing anything to control the train accidents but accidents which occur due to human error are inevitable to control), but it is not as easy to control terrorist attacks and if we deal with them in casual manner then they can grow in strength and can be more dangerous. Just imagine the terrorists who can penetrate into highly secured Taj Mahal hotel or Parliament house with so many arms, can’t they penetrate into the security of BARC or India’s nuclear arsenal?

        Although you can argue that people can die in disasters like Fukushima or Chernobyl Nuclear plants but don’t forget that if after taking so much precautions(which we take now) disasters like Chernobyl or Fukushima occurs than it’s a matter of chance, but if same thing happens because of terrorist attack than it’s a deliberate crime. Person can die because of cancer even if he doesn’t smoke cigarette, on the other hand one of my uncle who used to smoke 100 cigarettes in a day died naturally at the ripe old age of 95, but that’s purely a matter of chance now I can’t use it as a justification to smoke cigarette.
 

8) Finally even though it is harder to prevent terrorist attack it is not impossible to prevent it. World’s first suicide attack was carried on by LTTE but today it has been rooted from Sri Lankan land. Indonesia lost 300 people in Bali bombings but after that the way it strongly dealt with terrorists, it hasn’t given any other chance to terrorist organisations to conduct further attacks. U.S is another example of it.
 

9) I think this is enough to convince why terror attacks are more serious than train accidents and why people’s response is justifiable. However the only thing which is wrong in people’s response is differing intensity in the response toward different terror attacks and terrorist activities. When terrorist attack occurs in Mumbai, Ahmadabad or Delhi we make lot of hue and cry, but when 75 soldiers of CRPF died in Naxal attack in Rampur (Chattisgarh) we didn’t even showed 10% anger of what we are showing presently. Why this discrimination? Because Naxals never attacks in metro cities? Or because we don’t care for the soldiers of military and Para military forces who are giving their lives for our safety. When terrorist organisations of Nagaland blockaded Manipur national highway and thereby cutting Manipur with the whole nation nobody in India raised voice for them. Did we ever care to know to what pain they were passing? Because of this blockade petrol cost 200 ` per litter, grains cost 85 to 100 ` per Kg and perishable products like vegetables, fruits and milk wasn’t available at all. But how many of us cared for it in fact of most of us doesn’t even know about it. Sometimes I feel that India is not a nation because nation comes into existence through the feeling of togetherness felt by the people living in a land, but everyone pools in opposite direction just for his/her own selfish reasons. Urban class doesn’t consider Naxalism as big threat because it doesn’t directly affect them, leaders give irresponsible statements after every terrorist attack to appease their respective vote banks.

P.S- In two of my previous posts I have discussed in detail how our intelligence network works, why our intelligence agencies fail to detect the terrorist attacks and what measures can be taken to improve the intelligence network of this country. If you liked my analogy in this article than you will like these articles too.

Intelligence Failure-1

Intelligence Failure- 2

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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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