At a meeting held here on Saturday, civil society voices from across a wide spectrum urged that broader and multiple consultations to precede the drafting of the Lokpal legislation, warning that in the absence of a mechanism to hold the institution accountable, it could potentially turn into a “Frankenstein's monster.”
Organised by the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) and the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, it was the second such consultative meeting on the Lokpal Bill.
Participants, however, clarified that they had not set themselves in opposition to the joint civil society-government sub-committee currently examining the Jan Lokpal Bill drafted by Prashant Bhushan, Santosh Hegde and Arvind Kejriwal.
National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy said the council, which had taken the initiative to discuss and examine the Jan Lokpal Bill, withdrew from the consultations following the appointment of the sub-committee. But the NCPRI committed itself to a “strong and effective” Lokpal Bill and it did not want to abandon the process in the larger interest of contributing inputs to the Bill. This was not a clash with civil society members on the committee but was an effort to ensure that the bill takes into account “the concerns and priorities of as many individuals and groups as possible.” Multiple discussions with a regional spread, helped strengthen the democratic and deliberative process, Ms. Roy said, adding, “India is a diverse country and we have to think out of all possible boxes, not confining ourselves to a single draft.” Further, “the NCPRI believes that extensive pre-legislative debate is crucial to policy formulation and the drafting of effective legislation.”
The participants included the former Chief Justice of India, J.S. Verma, the former Chief Vigilance Commissioner, Pratyush Sinha, and Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra. The vast majority of the speakers expressed dissatisfaction with what they felt were sweeping provisions of the Bill. There were fears about lack of accountability of the Lokpal and about its combining the powers of investigation and prosecution in one authority. Justice Verma wondered if the envisaged draft would not amount to amending the basic structure of the Constitution. The CIC said prima facie the Bill appeared to have been drafted without any understanding of how the government functioned. He was critical of the Bill's staggering scope and said there was a need to guard against the danger of the Lokpal becoming a surrogate government, requiring a modern-day Yudhishtar to be paratrooped to sort out the fallout.
Shekhar Singh of the NCPRI laid stress on a basket of measures in place of a single, all-powerful, all-encompassing Lok Pal. Among other things, he suggested re-examining the Judicial Accountability and Standards Bill, instituting social audits and strengthening the Central Vigilance Commission.
Keywords: Jan Lokpal Bill
Corruption is just one dimension of various crimes committed by politicians. Thousands of murders are committed by politicians but no investigation takes place. The lokpal should have power to investigate such crimes. Further any crime committed by politicians should be supervised by courts. In one case a Congress politician's son was saved by police in a BJP ruled state.
As we are facing an extra-ordinary situation where cases of massive corruption are happening and ministers and other high ranking officials are found to be the culprits and due to their political numbers they are successful in manipulating the investigation or delaying the cases and ultimately getting away with very mild punishment when public memory fades,it requires extraordinary measures like the present bill.From day one people in the government are creating problems in the matter.They should find the way out so that the gulity never goes unpunished.Law is very tough on the ordinary individuals but very soft for the well connected .
Amidst the fog of accusations and double guessing, lets keep it clear and simple. Time-bound wide Consultation and Implementation of the Lok Pal bill is a good start. It is not a panacea but a start. Thank God for Anna's effort to remove our cynicism and despondency. His voice blows the whistle on the cacophony of incessant talkers and looters and may confirm our trust in democracy. Democracy is after all of the people, by the people, for the people.
Many of us who support Lok Pal Bill are simply fed up with the virus of corruption that pervades so much of public life in India and are looking for ways to curb this cancer. Anna Hazare is providing a voice to that frustration. We fully recognize the bill must honour the constitutional framework of India and can stand many improvements. No person or officer can be law unto itself. But then the suspicions of folks who feel that a long consultative process would mean that nothing will get done have also to be recognized as real concern because of our poor history in terms of taking this issue seriously.
It is remarkable that even our Supreme Court has to guide, direct and demand the prosecution of the spectrum scam to see movement in that case. That would be completely unnessary if the executive could be relied on to do its job. We must wake up as a people and decide what are we all about. We cannot continue to accept corruption in public or priavte life as simply a normal way of doing things. We can do better and most of our folks deserve better.
Well said M/S Sunil Dhawan, K. Palaka & Hari Duraiswami.
Now that the politicians have been cornered, they along with the corrupt Babus and similar Business Houses will try to prolong the process so that the Bill is never passed. If these people were honest about their utterings, the Bill should have been passed long back during the last 42 years.
Interference from different sections should not jeopadize the cause. Too many cooks spoil broth !
Not commenting on the integrity and intent of this kind of discussions, I would like to know what alternative they can offer.
Can they suggest a mechanism to curb corruption, prevent politicians and bureaucrats from subverting the system.
Anyone can start shouting,abusing and casting doubt on the integrity of others.
We need leaders not pessimistic spectators.
The Government is not being held accountable to the people except at the time of elections.It is high time the Government was made accountable.
Anna Hazare's team knew attempts to derail/slow down their movement would come in all forms and shapes. The arguments that Aruna Roy is willing to lend her name/face to seem to be, by far, the most deceptive. Anna's team knows that the vested interests in the government and elsewhere (pro-corruption lobby, if you will) want drafting and passing of this legislation to be a protracted affair because it gives them an opportunity to use their ample resources and cunningness to hoodwink the people once again. Their game plan is to give themselves at least a year so that a) people's attention fades b) they can try every dirty trick in the book to cast doubt on the leaders of the movement, c) leverage the friendly media they are in bed with to confuse people. So, Anna Hazare's team wants a time-bound action. The pro-corruption lobby doesn't. The likes of Aruna Roy seem to oblige the pro-corruption lobby more than willingly. Taking into account 'the concerns and priorities of as many individuals and groups as possible&' is Aruna Roy-ese for 'let's delay this indefinitely'.Now, here are some specific comments: 1) There are hundreds of elected representatives (from both the ruling party and the opposition) fattening themselves on tax payers' money and whose job it is to solicit the people's feedback. Aruna Roy blames Anna Hazare's team for not soliciting her inputs? (For the record, they are all ears if Aruna Roy cares to complete her thought process during this century.)2) Aruna Roy's NAC working group met all of two days before the fast. Please don't pretend that that would have happened without the fast. And, for a group that's piggybacking on Anna Hazare's efforts, that's a lot of criticism coming from them.3) That Lokpal will be a parallel government is complete hogwash. As Arvind Kejriwal pointed out, the proposed powers of Lokpal are nothing that don't already exist in IRS etc departments. And, if an effective Lokpal can bring about a sea change in how our governments operate, that's the intended result. But, that doesn't make Lokpal a parallel government. Nobody is taking over government's responsibilities. From JS Verma's comments, it seems that people in our government and judiciary want nobody to hold them accountable for what they are supposed to deliver. Now, I'd want such a job where I don't need to deliver what I promise to.
In any system, there must be checks and balance. If not the system gets perverted. The Lok Pal Bill must be set with adequate safeguards. Having said that, the system we had so far had no such safeguards too, encouraging free for all looting by the nexus establishment. There was virtually no accountability and no transparency. A perverted system was in place since independence. Which explains that despite all that corruption, not a single minister, judge, etc went to jail. Hence a Lok Pal Bill must have teeth and claws to hold the high and mighty accountable.
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