Lokpal Bill: Let’s not forget the real issue

The controversies sought to be created around Anna Hazare’s fast have obfuscated the real issue — which is the enactment of the Lokpal Bill. It was this objective which had led Hazare to undertake a fast and he compelled the Government to notify a joint committee to draft an effective legislation, hanging fire for 42 years.

The ruling Congress has adopted a dual strategy of dealing with the situation. While Pranab Mukherjee, chair of the drafting committee, made the right noises about his willingness to work with Hazare and his team, Digvijay Singh and Amar Singh — out in the cold since Mulayam Singh dumped him — have tried to deflate the ‘India Against Corruption’ Campaign. Clearly, the dirty tricks department of the Congress has activated itself to try and derail the exercise, even as it pays lip service to it.

The moral authority of the legal duo, Shanti and Prashant Bhushan, chosen by Hazare to be part of his team, to lead a movement for change will undoubtedly be weakened, if it is established that Mayawati gave Shanti Bhushan and his son Jayant land for a consideration. So far what we know is that the Bhushans’ voluntarily disclosed their assets, and that Prashant Bhushan has been fighting for public causes.

But the issue at stake here is not the Bhushans’ character; it is the passage of the Lokpal Bill which would provide an institutional mechanism to deter high level corruption. Those who worked for the passage of the Right to Information Bill were not perfect human beings. They put in place a systemic corrective to empower the citizenry and give even the most vulnerable  a tool to highlight official malfunctioning, thereby making the system more accountable.

The recent scams which have tumbled out can essentially be attributed to two factors — the RTI, and the judiciary. The efficacy of the judiciary as a watchdog has also hinged on whether there is a Justice KG Balakrishnan as the Chief Justice of India or a Justice Kapadia at the helm of affairs. In recent months, the government has acted only when the judiciary has cracked the whip, be it on the Commonwealth Games, the appointment of the CVC, or the 2G allocations.

If the argument being made is that those who are on the committee to formulate the Lokpal Bill have to be judged by certain personal moral standards, then these should apply equally to all those on it, both from the government side as well as to those belonging to civil society. The prerequisites for membership of the committee should be the same for all.

Admittedly,  many from civil society had demanded the Lokpal legislation, and worked for it over the years, and some of them feel that Hazare has upstaged them. But, at the end of the day, like it or not, it was Hazare’s fast that made the government cave in.

It is true that those who live in glass houses should not cast stones at others. It is possible that those who are supporting an end to corruption may well have  paid money to get their child admitted to a school,  to buy a railway ticket,  or  to get a  file moving in a government office, or worse. They may be “corrupt” or “clean” in varying degrees. But that does not mean  that they cannot cry  “enough is enough”,  and demand  an end to a corrupt system which has corroded our polity and society.  

Hazare’s fast may or may not lead to a  movement to cleanse India of its ills. It was essentially a protest that struck a chord in many.  In the past, Anna Hazare’s fasts had compelled the  Maharashtra government to drop ministers. This time, what made the difference was that  he  was in the national capital, under the glare of a media which hyped it up, the fast came after a plethora of scams which had robbed middle class Indians of a feel-good they had experienced in recent years, and the government was anyway on the back foot.

Hazare’s protest  had the “support” of  many middle class Indians, at Jantar Mantar, in state capitals and online, which is very different from their active “participation”.  And yet, its damage potential  was not lost on the government or the ruling party, which swung into action to demolish the momentum that was building up.

The  Congress would do well to remember that it was the use of dirty tricks which gave a fillup to VP Singh’s campaign against corruption during 1987-89,  and brought him to power, replacing  Rajiv Gandhi. Of course, Anna Hazare is no VP Singh. But the mood against corruption is reminiscent of the late eighties.

The writer is a commentator on political and social issues