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COVER STORY
Fighting Corruption
Anna way
As Year 2011 ended on ‘Anna’
Lokpal note for India, it is
tempting to do any of the three
things. – One, rephrase Bill
Clinton’s poll slogan and say, ‘It’s politics,
stupid’. Two, believe like Argentinean
leader, Carlos Saúl Menem and say,
‘Estamos mal, pero vamos bien’ (We're
doing badly, but getting better) and Three,
give fresh currency to Francis Delpérée
refrain -‘Il y a un parfum de crise’ (It's
starting to smell like a crisis)
Which of these will be your pick
depends on which side of the fence you
are at the moment rather than a long term
reading of the situation thanks to the
saturation coverage Team Anna has got in
the run up to the L-Day on the byte
hungry idiot box with the urban born,
urban bred anchors believing, and
making their viewers believe that the
crowds at Anna Leela at Ramlila Maidan
and Jantar Mantar are India and India is
crowds at the Anna Leela.
The first thing the political establishment should have done after Anna fasts became ‘parfum de crise’ was to send the anchors to know first hand about ‘accountability’ inherent in our political system. It is not money, stupid nor is it muscle power, stupid, that makes a person a people’s representative. An elected representative is accountable to the electorate, always. He/she cannot take the people for granted. A commentator in his air-conditioned cubicle on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg may like to see ‘hawa’ sweeping the electoral scene. A Seshan clone at the Nirvachan Sadan may proudly declare, ‘I eat politicians for my breakfast’ and convert Indian elections into an auditor’s delight but both know one truism – appearances are deceptive, always. Indian electorate is uneducated but it is not stupid. Otherwise Indira Gandhi could have won her post-emergency election riding on the crest of ‘hawa’ generated by ‘All Indra Radio’. Kisan Baburao Hazare (born 15 June
1937), popularly known as Anna Hazare,
knows the ground reality being a living
legend in his Ralegan Siddhi village
(Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra)
unlike Team Anna, which is a product of
‘Shining India’. Anna’s vision is, however,
conditioned by what he sees and what he
hears in Ralegan Siddhi and its
surroundings.
It is small ticket corruption, stupid, one may say. His concern is about the cutting edge of government delivery system. Not of Kiran Bedis, Kejriwals and the fatherson Bhushans who are neither here nor there with their demand for Jan Lok Pal, which will result in an Orwellian State modelled after the authoritarian streak they are known to possess. Yes, Anna is not above authoritarianism what with his advocacy of death punishment for corrupt officials, call for flogging drunkards, support for forced vasectomies, ultimatums that Lokpal bill should be passed in the winter session of Parliament, and threats to launch a ‘Jail Bharo’ movement. Who gives Anna Hazare the right to hold out a threat? People, according to him. In a NDTV discussion, he told the anchor, ‘People are my strength. Thousands are answering my call every day’. If so, why doesn’t he stand for an election? He gave his familiar toothless smile, saying amidst laughter, “If I contest, I will lose my deposit”.
A lawyer–member of Team Anna
chipped in: “The electoral system has lent
itself to enormous corruption. People are
voting for not candidates but a party to
power. There is a disconnect between
people and elected representatives”. A
point well made with a telegenic face for a
TV audience. Apprenticeship under
Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, the Thakur
winning on Lalu Prasad Yadav ticket, will
do his ilk good.
There is an X factor in elections. There is no conveyor belt of leaders and parties. Otherwise every employee of Jenson & Nicholson could have become a Minister for Internal Security. Every Indian Airlines pilot could have become the Prime Minister. And Chaudhry Charan Sngh could have his dream of unfurling the tri colour for the second time from ramparts of the Red Fort. Hence CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan’s advice to Anna is “You should not think that these 9-10 people of yours are the repository of all wisdom. There is no dearth of scholars …. Team Anna should also listen to others and have the patience to listen to others”. Yet, he attended Anna’s Jantar Mantar rally (December 11) and seconded the ‘andoloan’.
Who gives Anna Hazare the
right to hold out a threat?
People, according to him. In
a NDTV discussion, he told
the anchor, ‘People are my
strength. Thousands are
answering my call every day’.
If so, why doesn’t he stand
for an election? He gave his
familiar toothless smile,
saying amidst laughter, “If I
contest, I will lose my
deposit”.
BJP, the party waiting in the wings to appear on the Raisina Hill and LK Advani,
its senior leader, who is heard but not
followed, did one-up on the Comrades
and provided Saffron Philharmonic
orchestra support to Team Anna’s
Symphony No. 9.
Advani’s lament that the final word should lie with Parliament on passing laws is like his lament after Uma Bharti’s stirring call for ‘aur ek’ blow to bring down the historic but controversial structure at Ayodhya in December of 1992. “It was my saddest day”, Advani had said as the police took him away from his Pandara Road Residence (New Delhi) shortly after he returned home from Ayodhya. What is in short supply with Team Anna is patience. “We waited long enough. Either do what we, the people, want or quit”. These were strong words. Equally strong were the words reserved for the official Lok Pal draft (Jokpal); for the draft prepared by jurist Abhishek Singhvi led Parliamentary standing (worthless, empty can); for the Manmohan Singh government (they are betraying people). Anna talks of Jan Sansad (People’s Parliament) but is unwilling to trust Sansad (People elected Parliament). He has every right to debunk Parliament. Naxalites are doing so for years. But he loves to sail in two boats simultaneously. Lean and efficient Lok Pal can tackle
big ticket corruption. Not a ‘Dharampal’
breathing down the neck of secretary to the government of India, and secretary to
the Gram Panchyat alike besides 70 lakh
plus clerks and other low grade babus in
Delhi’s service; the job could make the
Ombudsman buried under the sheer
burden of the work.
Big brother McCarthyism will herald
policy paralysis and a standstill in
administration at a time when PILs and
RTI have become an invitation to anarchy
in a manner of speaking. Team Anna
should have addressed the structural
inequality inherent in the system of our
governance. Instead, it sees manna in a
singe institution for oversight with CVC
and CBI under its wings. And it is an
invitation to create a Gaddafi, says Bal Thackeray, the cartoonist turned Shiv
Sena supremo.
Grand Old Party of India, which
considers nation building and ruling the
nation as its USP, has failed to read the
writing on the walls leading to Ramlila
maidan and Jantar Mantar. Then it
panicked, and viewing Team Anna as the
UPA-II nemesis, failed to speak to the
people with clarity, conviction, and
authority. It did the unthinkable -
provided oxygen to Team Anna by
entrusting them with the right to vet
Parliamentary resolution on Lokpal and
by allowing Team Anna to set the deadline
for various stages of the legislation.
The Congress could have got credit for bills on judicial accountability, protection of whistle-blowers and a citizens’ charter for delivery of services. But these were viewed as response to the ‘pressure’. With Congress in the ‘reactive’ mode to Team Anna’s initiatives, the nation became witness to the new practice of a bill being drafted jointly by the ministers and people, who have no accountability despite priding themselves as representatives of civil society. This is as dangerous as the trend set by Mandal Messiah VP Singh as Prime Minister of releasing militants in exchange for a high value hostage (Rubaiya Sayeed, a daughter of his home minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed). From BJP to BSP, every party is content with grandstanding on issues like placing Prime Minister under Lok Pal’s ambit. Neither the NDA nor the short lived Fronts in the saddle made the PM a Lokpal subject. Criteria for selection of a Lokpal, and who selects the Lokpal, and how are matters of detail notwithstanding Team Anna’s desire to leave its imprimatur on these aspects. The idea of a Lokpal (Ombudsman) was first heard at the Third All India Law Conference (August 1962). GVG Krishna Murthy, who went on to become one of the presiding deities at the Nirvachan Sadan when T N Seshan was an icon of the middle classes, presented a paper titled ‘Certain Working Formula relating to the Institution of Ombudsman in India’. And it caught the attention of Jawaharlal Nehru, who was the chief guest at the meet. “Panditji liked the idea. The (Law) Conference unanimously adopted my working formula as a resolution. Prime Minister told us that he would consider tabling a bill ….,” recalls GVG. The Lokpal bill has ten births (1968, 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2008 and 2010). Historically speaking, tabling of Lokpal bill often heralded early elections. Hope lies in hoping that there will be no need to rephrase what a Hungarian prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsány, said once namely “Elkúrtuk, nem kicsit, nagyon”(We screwed it, not a little but a lot.). | ||||||||
Anna at the Gandhi Samadhi
Anna : people are my strength
Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare with Kiran Bedi at a press conference
after a meeting of their core committee in New Delhi
