The last two weekends brought smiles on every ordinary Indians face and people celebrated it with crackers and gulaal. While MSD and his team brought back the much awaited ICC World Cup 2011 on 2nd April 2011 by beating the foreign opponents, Anna Hazare won a significant battle for the Lokpal Bill against the government on 9th April 2011 which will go a long way in deciding the future course of the nation towards a corruption free system!
Before dwelling further upon the significance of Lokpal Bill, it is important to understand what actually it is.
The basic idea of the Lokpal is borrowed from the office of the ombudsman in other countries. It provides for filing complaints of corruption against the Prime Minister , other ministers and members of parliament with the ombudsman. The Lokpal is proposed to be a three-member body with a chairperson who is or was a chief justice or Supreme Court judge, and two members who are or have been high courts judges or chief justices. Implementation of the Lokpal bill will hopefully reduce corruption in India.
We are running late, but at least we have started running! ‘Ombudsman’ is a Swedish word that means ‘an officer appointed by the legislature to handle complaints against administrative and judicial action’. The office was created in Sweden long back in 1809 and was subsequently adopted by other Scandinavian countries that saw it as ‘a bulwark of democratic government against the tyranny of officialdom’. Many countries, including UK has this office. Hongkong has registered spectacular results in the fight against corruption. When corruption in its police force peaked in 1970s, the government set up an Independent Commission Against Corruption and gave it full powers to investigate and punish the guilty. It sacked 119 of the 180 police officers in one go, sending a strong message to the rest of the force and other government functionaries. Hence, if Lokpal Bill is drafted and implemented earnestly, it has the potential of changing the face of our country.
Significance of the Fast-Unto-Death by Anna Hazare can be gauged from above example and it was rightly taken to enforce participation of civil society in drafting the Lokpal Bill. And the full support that this revolution got from the ordinary people from all walks of life - who converged at Jantar Mantar, made the indifferent government to sit up and accede to the demand. The four day revolution that galvanized the entire country, culminated with government acceding to 50:50 joint committee comprising government and civil society. It is a big victory for the ordinary people, a non-violent war led by an ex-army man against the kaale angrez and their corrupt ways!
This episode should also work as an early warning to the entire system that thrives on corruption. It has to stop, and sooner the better. Else, the day is not far when public outcry against corruption may take the shape and proportion of revolts as has been seen in Egypt and the chain reaction that followed elsewhere.
Madhukar Mohan
Seeing the support that Anna got, it looks that the change has begun.
ReplyDeleteFor all the delirious exhilaration surrounding the lokpal bill, I feel just a bit of cautious optimism that comes with living in India for 40 years (and some more). We have seen the wily bureaucrats and politicians subverting all institutions to their advantage. Vast majority of criminals who are free can be easily prosecuted under existing laws. The key word here would be " implemented earnestly". However if it is able to stamp out corruption in high offices and this probity trickles down to the general population we could have a corruption free India in a decade or so. That is just my imagination running away in delirious exhilaration.
ReplyDeleteI take objection to your phrase kaale Angrej. It is racist.. i mean colourist.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDear Niranjan,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your analysis and comments on the topic. As far as the phrase-'Kaale angrez' is concerned- I took it from one of the statements of Anna Hazare - on the day he broke his fast. He had said - "This is a second independence struggle... If Bhagat Singh had thrown the British out of India, today we have managed to do the same to the kaale angrez who rule us today,". I thought twice before putting it in my post. I did not intend to be racistor colourist(!), I used it because it had relevance with the fast-unto-death underatken by Anna Hazare on Lokpal Bill.
the comment was in a light vein.
ReplyDelete