Congress in Lokpal tangle
By Gopal Krishna Agarwal,
The country was waiting for a
strong Lokpal bill to be tabled in Parliament by the government. After such a
long battle and successive assurances, everybody was expecting that it will
relent and at least stand on its promise within the Parliament to Anna Hazare
and through him to the people of the country.
The concept of a strong
Lokpal was based on a unified, independent, transparent, and effective anti-corruption institution in the country. At present, we have several anti-corruption laws and institutions, but they are all scattered and are not
independent, and therefore not effective. Through the India Against Corruption
movement, people of the country demanded an institution that would combine the investigative setup of CBI (which is not independent) and would enjoy the
independence of CVC (which is not effective). This anti-corruption institution
was also expected to oversee the judiciary. People wanted the members of
Parliament and the Prime Minister to come within its ambit, as it is perceived
that they are the major source of rampant corruption in the country
Another lacuna in the
anti-corruption setup was the lack of protection for the whistleblower. We have
seen 13 murders of RTI activists recently. If a whistleblower does not get
protection then people will be hesitant to complain against the high and
powerful.
Lower-level bureaucracy is more troublesome to the common man. Though corruption in high places harms the
country more, the common man is fed up with his day-to-day life, coping with
bribery. Therefore, all categories of government employees needed to be
brought under the Lokpal. Government has kept out the C category, for the fear
of losing its major vote bank and left them to harass people Another problem
was that, unless you have a time bound delivery of services and are able to fix
account ability, you cannot determine the level of services Based on this
accountability we can fix the ha rassment and grievances. This was also part of the anti-corruption movement's demand.
But the current draft of the Lokpal bill has neither the CBI in its ambit nor has it made it an independent
body. CVC is also a separate body, and C group employees have been put under it,
but CVC has no resources to manage the menace of corruption in this category.
PM, though, is brought under the Lokpal. But has been given several unwarranted
protections. Citizens' charter has been segregated and is being brought as a
separate bill. The complaints of the people will be looked into by the department's
vigilance officer, which will never be effective, as it will not give a report
against its own colleagues. If the protection of whistleblowers is not under the Lokpal, how can we protect the complainant? I fail to understand. And we
don't think that by simply setting up of judicial commission, we will he able
to check corruption in the judiciary.
So the Lokpal bill, which
the government proposes, is an empty box of chocolate. Reservation is another
ploy to play the vote bank politics. And fax pause on the part of the government
with regard to the word minority, which had to be removed at the last moment
due to constitutional restriction, is a case in point about its over obsession
to placate minorities at all costs
With the government
opening its cards the only hope for the people is BJP Though. BJP has said that
it will oppose the bill and demand for its amendment based on its dissent note
in the standing committee. Everybody is waiting to see how it performs
vis-à-vis the expectations of the people.
