Once again the Bill met the same fate as expected by political pundits. The Bill got a lukewarm support in the Lok Sabha and was sent, as usual to Rajya Sabha, where it could not fetch the requisite support and was made bone of contention by the parties so as to allow it to reach to its  natural  death. The Rajya Sabha debate or rather the debacle last week was termed as ‘devious dance of deception’ “match fixing of the worst kind” and “death of democracy” by many bitter politicians and commentators, where intentions  of every political party became clear during the debate, and not a single party was sincere about the passing of  Lokpal  Bill. And  had staged much hype but no one was serious about it, only playing a blame game. Whatever happened in the two houses of parliament was nothing less than a “premeditated   drama”, obviously   the Bill was to face same fate as Women Reservation Bill has met. If in a parliamentary system of democracy, a Bill does not muster support, then it is not what people want. There is no other way to know what ‘we the people’ want. We don’t, vote on issues, we vote on MP’s once in five years. But as Aristotle observes “we common people have that much of intelligence to judge the efficiency of  law enacted by expert minds, because  we are the wearers who know where the shoe  pinches ”. There is no room for plebiscite in India.  Issues change from time to time. Lokpal today; may be AFSPA tomorrow. Our elected  representatives decide for us in our parliament and we elect them in good faith. Just because one section of the population thinks that their version of the Lokpal Bill is “what India needs,” does not make it necessary for parliament to pass the Bill in a hurry, in a manner that suits a  section  of a vocal group. Thus turning our parliament in to a wonderful stage where allegation and counter allegation were leveled between Congress and BJP and other political parties, blaming both Congress and BJP for this flop show The Rajya Sabha debate was another ‘live circus show’ for middle  class Indians who applauded thundering speeches and sniggered at awkwardly delivered ones.
The word Lokpal has been taken from a Sanskrit  word which means ‘guardian’ of people and creates an authority which is called as Ombudsman  in Sweden as it evolved in the same country in the year 1809 whose function was to receive complaints and to keep an eye upon the wrong doings of the government. In Sweden, Denmark,  Finland and Norway, it is called as  Ombdsman, where as in England, it is called Parliamentary Commissioner, which can look into matters of corruption pertaining to members of parliament.
It was during 1960’s that occurrences of  corruption was felt in our political system and government felt to create an Administrative Reform Commission(A R C) which recommended for the creation of  Lokpal at centre and lokayakut at the state level. The recommendations of ARC were accepted, It was in 1968, and in the ‘fourth Lok  Sabha’, the Bill was introduced and got an approval from the Lower House, but the Bill could not be introduced in Rajya Sabha  due to the fact that Lok Sabha was dissolved and the Bill could not get through. Since then the Bill was so many times introduced in the Lower House and greeted by our parliamentarians many times. But like bureaucracy the Bill was sent to many tables just to adopt a tactical device and keeping public unnecessarily involved for their political ends. It was again introduced in the parliament, in the year, 1971 & 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005, & 2008 consecutively, till then all Political Parties had enjoyed the ‘reigns of power’ but none was  sincere towards the passing of the Bill. History stands a testimony to the fact that whenever the Bill was introduced in the parliament it was shown the doors of either Joint Parliamentary Committee or the Standing Committee of Ministry of Home Affairs for reconsideration.
      Looking towards  the much needed lokpal Bill,  one can easily conclude that all political parties are not sincere about the Bill as they do not want any accountability or transparency in their conduct of political affairs of the country ,nor to come under any authority or surveillance…..For example BJP, desperately claims to, have a lok pal,   not ‘the type’ created by the Congress, but, a strong lok pal, same is the case with other political parties like, RJD, BSP, Samaj wadi. Trimool Congress, an ally of the ruling party, is also not against the lok pal, but the present Bill does not suffice its demands. Congress blamed the BJP for sabotage and said that the people will never forgive them for such sabotage but the question is that when every political party is in favor of a strong lokpal, and there is consensus for the same, why they are not interested in getting it through. Even the Congress does not hesitate to adjourn the upper house sine die, under the pretext of  receiving 187 proposals for amendments  and it will involve lot of time to reconsider it. What lot of time, perhaps the remaining tenure of the government, as it took only 43 years, let the people wait for the more years to come. In India, we know and have experienced that change does not happen suddenly. Not even good changes, we wait for failing cricketers to announce retirement rather than firing them as in other countries. We wait for thousands of  farmers to commit suicide, we wait industries to go bust and we wait students to hang or burn themselves or we wait till our teen age boys are  killed . And then a mad scramble to dole out sops. Patch and repair rather than prevent mishaps.
                       Everywhere there has been  public anger and  desire  for a change. After all there must have been some reason why several thousands came out on streets in New Delhi and elsewhere with a candle in hand  chanting ‘Mera  Neta Chor Hai’. It was a clear message to the government: People are angry with corruption, get your act together, and punish the wrong        doers, else you will pay the price in the next elections. Anna acted as a microphone to make the noise louder and obvious.                
             So let us make a new year resolution, to leave it to law makers to decide. And if they don’t do it, deliver the blow in the elections that are just five months away, which of course, is the civilized and democratic way of getting things done.

(Dr Akhtar Hussain Mir is a retired professor. Feedback at akhtarhussainmir@yahoo.in)

Lastupdate on : Thu, 5 Jan 2012 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 5 Jan 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 6 Jan 2012 00:00:00 IST