Anna Hazare, Manmohan Bechare?

I will start by saying that I am as much concerned about corruption prevalent in India, as is everyone else. Also, I have utmost respect for shri Anna Hazare, for he is doing something that was needed to be done years ago. Having said that, I will now list four things that I firmly believe in:

1. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown;

2.  Telling others how things should be done is entirely different from doing it oneself;

3. Power corrupts;

4. Be the change you want to see in the society.

Our Nation is a nation of mass hysterias. A few weeks ago, there was a mass hysteria about Baba Ramdev, and the entire nation seemed to be behind him on the issue of black money. The media worked without pressure; they did not need to hunt for news in deep borewells in small towns. That hysteria died down sooner than expected, and now it has been replaced by the Anna hysteria. Again, the media is having a bonanza. One witnessed a similar hysteria early in this year when India first beat Pakistan in WC semifinals and again when India beat SL in the finals. Thousands poured out on the streets in the middle of the night to celebrate. A few days later everything was forgotten and IPL fever took over. I’m afraid of a similar fate for the Anna hysteria.

I’d like to share a few points here:

1. Anna (and his team) is now doing exactly what our netas have been doing over the years: exploit popular support. Just as on the basis of the support of the electorate in their area, netas indulge in all kinds of excesses, including goodaism and hooliganism, Anna too has leant on the popular wave in his favor and has put a virtual gun on the government’s head and is dictating terms. He’s almost saying, ‘Accept our version of the bill or else I’ll unleash this crowd on you’. Not a good sign in democracy. Pick 8 out of 10 random people in any of the rallies in Anna’s favor and they’d not know the difference between the lokpal bill and a driver’s license. Agreed, everyone is out on the street on the issue of corruption, but there should be method to everything. Bills are not presented to the parliament at gun point.
2. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Is this why Anna Hazare, despite being a popular figure for decades, hasn’t fought an election? ‘Be the change you want to see in the society’. In all probability, Anna Hazare knows that in India, it is practically impossible to be in the seat of power, howsoever miniscule, and not be corrupt. Why didn’t he take up this challenge and show to the world that it can be different? Why doesn’t he become a part of the government and bring the change that he wants by being on the inside? Is it because that it is easy to point fingers from the outside than being inside and have fingers pointed to you? He reminds me of the left-front parties that were a coalition partner to the UPA government in the previous Lok-sabha, by the way of their ‘support from the outside’. By doing this, they were neither in the government, nor in the opposition, and played the role of either, at their convenience!
3. The hullabaloo of the opposition parties notwithstanding at this stage, I’d be wholly surprised that if and when Anna’s version of the bill is presented in the parliament, these very parties would vote for the bill! For a simple reason: though they are in the opposition today, they have certainly not lost hope of being in the power some day. And going by the way the UPA has conducted itself in the past one year or so, this seems possible as early as 2 years from now! So, in such an event the present opposition parties would then in direct line of fire of the lokpal! Therefore, I doubt it very much that Anna’s version of the bill would ever see the light of the day as a law.
4. http://righttoinformation.info/ncpri-public-consultations-on-the-lok-pal-bill/public-consultations-on-collective-and-concurrent-lokpal-anti-corruption-and-grievance-redress-measures-by-the-ncpri-nehru-memorial-museum-and-library-and-inclusive-media-4-change-csds/

    The above link is a fine one to study the finer details of the proposed lokpal bill. The government, being what it is, has taken into consideration the fact that Anna’s version of the bill, if implemented in its totality, has a potential of unleashing a barrage of plaints, justified, and unjustified, against all and sundry in the central government. (Remember, the Lokpal would have jurisdiction only against the central government agencies, and not the state government ones. The state governments have the option of having a lok-Ayukta. It was a Lok Ayukta’s report against Yedurappa in Karnataka that made him resign his post as the CM. But some states, like Gujarat, don’t have a lok-Ayukta for several years, and nobody’s going up in their arms about that!) Of course, even the government’s version of the Lokpal bill is not wholly acceptable, but then a middle path should be devised by the way of talks, and not by the way of blackmailing. One hopes that some day, sanity would prevail on either side, and a plausible bill would be passed in the parliament.

Finally, a word about corruption. The truth is that corruption is so rife in India that the dream of removing it in totality is an unreal one. There is corruption at high places, like the 2G and CWG scams, and there is corruption in small offices, like the roadside traffic policeman demanding a tenner. The fact is that one should be concerned about both with the same fervour. It is only the unchecked corrupt traffic policemen that burgeon into Kalmadis. But alas, we are concerned only about the A Rajas thieving our nation of thousands of crores, and not about ourselves when we don’t think twice before paying up the BSNL lineman for a new set of wiring. My daily anger against corruption is against the people responsible for maintaining the roads of my small town. Monsoon has battered the roads beyond recognition, and this is an annual affair. Will the lokpal bill repair my roads?