India against corruption! Wakeup call !!

We have all read about civil disobedience movement during India's Struggle for independence in history text books. But now we are witnessing a similar struggle in an Independent India. Yes! of course, Iam talking about Anna Hazare's movement of "India against Corruption". I need not go into the details of the movement as most of us know about it by now.

I too Support the noble intentions of Anna Hazare. This movement (or can it become a revolution? ) is long overdue. Corruption has seeped into our India Polity and civil society so much that we don’t even feel its presence. It has become a way of life for us. If the twin evils of Corruption and over-population were not present , India would not have remained ever-developing ! I am even more happy to see people from all walks of life taking interest in this movement.

But for all the very noble intentions of Anna Hazare and company, there are some things which I am not very convinced about in the "Jan Lok Pal bill" draft suggested by IAC.

For one, the Jan Lok Pall Bill (JLPB) wants to create the law themselves, Implement it themselves and be the judge themselves. That means they will be Legislature-Executive-Judiciary rolled into one. The constitution of India is a very important document and subverting it is not desirable. Of course amendments maybe desirable. Our constitution has specifically and for good reasons separated all these three institutions with each keeping a watchful eye on the other.

According to our constitution it is the Parliament's prerogative to enact laws. As such bills have to be prepared by them, we can give our suggestions. But demanding that we want to draft the bill ourselves, is it not encroaching upon the Parliaments domain? After all we are not elected representatives. This might set a bad precedent.

General public/Civil society deciding who will participate in drafting of the bills, including the names have been already decided and forcing the govt to include only these names is it correct? Requesting for 50% participation by general public (eminent knowledgeable people) is OK but demanding for exactly these people to be included, is it correct? Or did I get it all wrong? Deciding who will be included in the committee is to be done by Parliament. We can request that 50% be civil society and not politicians but cannot force names.

I am not against Mr.Santosh Hegde, per se. He is very knowledgeable and I appreciate his efforts to rid Karnataka of corruption. But if this trend continues, today it is a good and truthful person like Mr Hegde, but tomorrow some others may try this avenue to force names through social activists. Worst case, Lobbyist like Nirra Radia will get another avenue of social activists like they have used Journalist till now. Remember how once-respected journalist Vir Sanghvi was taking dictation from Radia as to what to write in his column. Suggesting Mr Hegde to be in the Committee is perfectly fine, but only Mr Hegde or nobody else , is it right?

We should remember corruption is bad, and governments approach is wrong, but is the IAC perfectly correct? Two wrongs cannot make a thing right.

Anyways at least the govt is being forced to look into the demand of inclusive committee. By the way even Mr Hegde has said, he agrees the Govt Lok pall bill draft is just trash, but he does not agree with all the aspects of the JLPB of IAC also. If not anything else this movement has brought into fore the always-taken-for-granted corruption in our daily life. Made us to sit up and think about it. Of course, India needs more people like Anna Hazare.

Proud of a very vibrant Democracy, India, whatever may be the shortcomings. At least a voice is not stifled like it was done in Tiananmen Square.

I feel this is a very important movement started by Anna Hazare and company. The opportunity should not be lost. Both sides should show maturity and understand the public anger against corruption, give up one-up man ship and without subverting the constitution and the important pillars of democracy use this opportunity for betterment of the society.

As they say a mass movement has many aspects to it, apart from the main demands. I have seen some news reports and tweets (reported) which criticised the act of school students joining the protest. But I feel there is nothing wrong in this. The critics argue that the Students don’t understand anything about the protest. But I think they are students, as such it is a form of education. They should be made aware of what is happening and left to themselves to make a judgement. Just reading about Civil Disobedience movement in school text books is not enough if you want to banish them from seeing such a movement live!

I repeat Proud of a very vibrant Democracy, India. India needs more people like Anna Hazare.

-Sandeep Kulkarni