Jan Lokpal Goes Elitist !

If the Lokpal Bill presented to Parliament is a dud, Anna Hazare and his team must accept their share of the blame. They took their eyes off citizens and concentrated almost exclusively on big people in important positions. What tempted them to take this stance? Is it because enemies in high places are better ego boosters than humble friends?

For ordinary people it is of little consequence if the prime minister or Supreme Court judges fall within the ambit of the Lokpal Bill. It is breaking news stuff, but not the stuff of everyday life. What worries most of us is routine corruption at the ground level, but Anna and his activists have set their sights on the stars.

Consequently, sections in the Jan Lokpal Bill which protect whistle blowers and citizens from routine corruption receive little publicity. The government's representatives to the Lokpal discussions are probably looking into the mirror and blowing kisses at themselves. By veering the talks towards prime ministers and judges, they effectively sidelined issues that bother the average citizen.

If truth be told, we have learnt to fear the law enforcer more than the law breakers. When a bureaucrat looks unhappily at us we come rushing in bearing gifts. It is this everyday, routine terror that we want to be freed from. Docking the prime minister might smell of roses to some, but does nothing for most of us.

Anna and his team are not quite mindful of this fact as they are on an all-time high. They believe that their group binge has given ministers and judges sleepless nights and frown-filled days. As this is an addictive and pleasurable thought, it has led Jan Lokpal activists to effectively ignore parts of the Bill that really matter to citizens.

Which parts are these?

Section 20 in the proposed Jan Lokpal Bill is categorical about protecting whistleblowers. As such threats are "imminent", the document recommends that they should be put on "fast track" investigation and dealt with as soon as possible, within 24 hours.

Section 21 follows soon after with a "Citizens' Charter". This protects us from delayed justice and from having to prove that we were forced to bribe. As this rule is framed in a very objective manner, it puts the onus on the official concerned.

Section 21 (1) of the Citizens' Charter in the Jan Lokpal Bill explicitly expands on this subject. It proposes to "enumerate the commitments of the respective problem authority to the citizens (sic), officer responsible for meeting each such commitment and the time limit within which the commitment shall be met".

If that does not happen, then Section 22 would instantly kick in. There will now be a chief vigilance officer in each "problem authority" who will take action against such erring "public servants".

In other words, if a particular job is not done within the stipulated time, if a verdict is not delivered within the designated period, the concerned functionary will have to explain. Unfortunately, both the protection of whistleblowers and the empowering of citizens have not received the attention they deserve.

This can be gauged from what both sides had to say during and after the talks, especially after. In the post-discussion media releases, neither the government nor Anna's camp spent any time on these issues. This, notwithstanding their long tirades against each other.

Protecting whistleblowers and setting up a citizens' charter are of no consequence to those who are ministers, judges, joint secretaries and above. But they intimately affect ordinary people. If these provisions were to become active we could dust off our knees and stand straight, perhaps for the first time. The police station and the law court would then become friendly places and not next door to hell.

In the long run, Sections 20 and 21 would force the political class and its satraps to reinvent themselves. Gradually, ministers, judges and the mass of officials will have little to hide as they will have no avenues to receive. True, the Right to Information Act exists, but as it stands unprotected only the intrepid few have the guts to use it. In 2010 alone, as many as 10 RTI activists were murdered.

The central vigilance commissioner has confessed that his office does not have the requisite powers to protect whistleblowers. If Anna's team had not been so obsessed by the thrill of locking up bigwigs, the ordinary citizen would have been better served. Judging from the way Satyendra Dubey of National Highways Autho-rity and the additional collector of Nashik were killed, even officials who fight corruption had better watch their backs.

The builders' lobby and the mining mafia can be ruthless in their operations, for they often get police support. There are many instances of such collusion in both small and big cities. Only last month when a Ghaziabad resident attempted to expose a real estate racket, he was promptly arrested by the police. He sang Bhagat Singh-inspired songs on his way to jail, but that did not work.

If, however, Sections 20 and 21 of the Jan Lokpal Bill had become law, that would have helped him. It is just too bad that Anna and his team failed to highlight this aspect. As they were big game hunting they lost the plot and the people they were meant to protect.

The best is often a sworn enemy of the good.

Is Anna's Lokpal dangerous to our republic?

The frame of Lokpal bill is very ambient. It balances in its boundaries, the Supreme Court members along with the bureaucrats. It can lead to serious consequences. Various experts of law believe that this system will damage the basic system of our constitution. Under the constitution, freedom of countries’ judiciary is kept safe till the extent that a senior judge can only be impeached from his post by undergoing a perplexing/complex process. No doubt we need a strong judicial accountability bill.

But in place of this, Jan Lokpal bill is giving an idea of a group of 11 non-elected experts, who will have rights to file a lawsuit against the members of the Supreme Court. As soon as you will accept the proposal of the independent investigation and prosecution agency, you will see serious results of this. In this case a no judge will ever dare to hark his judgment against the Lokpal advocate, as he will always be under the fear that if his judgment is considered to be wrong then he himself will face a lawsuit.

In any of the cases, one of the parties feels dripped after the court declares the judgment

Another point of concern is, that Jan Lokpal Wants to keep the right to discipline all the government officials under his hands. For this we will need to amend the constitution, as present in present the term of office of a government official is under the anuchhed-331 of the constitution. Apart for this power to fix a judgment against a civil servant is with Central sangh lok seva, which is decided after the recommendation of Para 320(3) © of the constitution.

Jan Lokpal can get the right to correct all the employees of the central government only thin the condition, if these paragraphs are amended. This clearly indicates that this is completely diverts us from the direction of our present constitution. Any such step will make the state handicap, as under this the governments officials will be fixated under this discipline act and will try to find delay them, and also they may complaint unnecessarily against their colleague because  their personal differences

Jan Lokpal also wants to keep PM under its frame. In this constitution every civil servant is answerable and no one can object on this on theoretical principles basis. The question is that should the LokPal be given this right. In the recent past days one of our seniors said that, our past experience does not tells us that our Past PM are angles and are clean, this applies to our judges as well. And it is very much possible that the future will tell us that even the members of the Lokpal are not are angels. Freedom decides the honestly of every officer. A independent and sane Jan Lokpal can make the system unstable and he can even investigate the PM for the reason that allegations against him are were not true.

Under the current arrangements a PM is not free from the prosecution. If any such instant occurs that the profess come in light publicly, the even the current arrangement don’t allow a fired person to be on the post of PM

Jan lokpal against creates a serious concern, and that is law suit against the members of parliament. Members of parliament are safe form the anuchhed-105(2) just to give speeches and votes. Both of these very important rights. Keeping theses under the Lokpal means that members of parliament will raise questions against every speech and vote just for the sake of politics. And also to give this right to the Lokpal, our constitution will need amendment.

 There are other controversial bills of the Jan Lokpal include the right of Lokpal on CVC and CBI anti corruption, also it wants the right, that similar to Indian telegraph act-5, it should have right to check internet and other medias to check messages or data sent, and they don’t want to seek any permission for the processes. It also ashes for the right bound the finance minister to abide by its demands.

Also it asks for the right to burden the corrupt party to by5 times the loss to the country. They should be successful to get the money form the private and other properties of the managing directors.

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As Mr. Kapil Sibal (Minister of Human Resource Development) Said to HINDUSTAN in editorial. Translated in English to Hindi.

 

Why LOKPAL BILL is Important ?

The Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen's ombudsman Bill) is a draft anti-corruption bill drawn up by prominent civil society activists seeking the appointment of a Jan Lokpal, an independent body  that would investigate corruption cases, complete the investigation within a year and envisages trial in the case getting over in the next one year.

Drafted by Justice Santosh Hegde (former Supreme Court Judge and present Lokayukta of Karnataka), Prashant Bhushan (Supreme Court Lawyer) and Arvind Kejriwal (RTI activist), the draft Bill envisages a system where a corrupt person found guilty would go to jail within two years of the complaint being made and his ill-gotten wealth being confiscated. It also seeks power to the Jan Lokpal to prosecute politicians and bureaucrats without government permission.

Retired IPS officer Kiran Bedi and other known people like Swami Agnivesh, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Anna Hazare and Mallika Sarabhai are also part of the movement, called India Against Corruption. Its website describes the movement as "an expression of collective anger of people of India against corruption. We have all come together to force/request/persuade/pressurize the Government to enact the Jan Lokpal Bill. We feel that if this Bill were enacted it would create an effective deterrence against corruption.

Anna Hazare, anti-corruption crusader, began a fast-unto-death today, demanding that this bill, drafted by the civil society, be adopted. The website of the India Against Corruption movement calls the Lokpal Bill of the government an "eyewash" and has on it a critique of that government Bill. It also lists the difference between the Bills drafted by the government and civil society.

A look at the salient features of Jan Lokpal Bill:

1. An institution called LOKPAL at the centre and LOKAYUKTA in each state will be set up

2. Like Supreme Court and Election Commission, they will be completely independent of the governments. No minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence their investigations.

3. Cases against corrupt people will not linger on for years anymore: Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial should be completed in next one year so that the corrupt politician, officer or judge is sent to jail within two years.

4. The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction.

5. How will it help a common citizen: If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant.

6. So, you could approach Lokpal if your ration card or passport or voter card is not being made or if police is not registering your case or any other work is not being done in prescribed time. Lokpal will have to get it done in a month's time. You could also report any case of corruption to Lokpal like ration being siphoned off, poor quality roads been constructed or panchayat funds being siphoned off. Lokpal will have to complete its investigations in a year, trial will be over in next one year and the guilty will go to jail within two years.

7. But won't the government appoint corrupt and weak people as Lokpal members? That won't be possible because its members will be selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through a completely transparent and participatory process.

8. What if some officer in Lokpal becomes corrupt? The entire functioning of Lokpal/ Lokayukta will be completely transparent. Any complaint against any officer of Lokpal shall be investigated and the officer dismissed within two months.

9. What will happen to existing anti-corruption agencies? CVC, departmental vigilance and anti-corruption branch of CBI will be merged into Lokpal. Lokpal will have complete powers and machinery to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician.

10. It will be the duty of the Lokpal to provide protection to those who are being victimized for raising their voice against corruption.

Who are we? Who is Anna hazare ?

Today, Anna Hazare is the face of India's fight against corruption. He has taken that fight to the corridors of power and challenged the govt at the highest level. People, the common man and well known personalities alike, are supporting him in the hundreds swelling to the thousands.

Anna Hazare's fight against corruption began here. His organization - the BHRASHTACHAR VIRODHI JAN ANDOLAN (people's movement against corruption). His tool of protest - hunger strike.

...and his prime target - politicians.

We all should go out and join hand with him. Broadly peaceful protest can bring down corrupt politicians of our country too.
Anna is demanding that the lokpal bill be given more teeth so it can effectively tackle corruption in public life.