As we rush to the Press, some key questions especially the one on the Lokpal Bill, also described as the “Jokepal Bill” by “My Lords and Ladies Gay”, remain unanswered. In the meantime, the well-oiled mutual-allegations industry remains busy 24 x 7, round the clock.
The weak government is in battledress while the weaker Opposition is deliberately desisting from comment on the issue as it is likely to be fatally affected by the said Bill when it comes out, as envisaged by the Anna Hazare group.
THE ISSUES
The contentious issues are: The government wants an 11-member body to probe high level corruption. The Anna group feels just 11 persons would not be sufficient to do the arduous job.
The Anna camp stands for bringing the Prime Minister and the higher judiciary under the ambit of the Lokpal. But the government wants to keep them off the ambit.
The government is also opposed to the Lokpal’s jurisdiction over the Parliamentarians while Anna wants them under the Lokpal.
The civil society group is for merging the CBI and CVC with the Lokpal while the government panel is opposed to it.
The government wants the Lokpal to just advise while Anna group stands for empowerment of the Lokpal to investigate and even prosecute the accused through the government.
The argument boils down to the point the government wants to see the Lokpal like a toothless, clawless tiger. In this case, even the frowning of the paper-tiger would not shoo away the wolves. It is too obvious.
It does not mean that all the Congressmen subscribe to this palpably ineffective formula. Mr. Digvijay Singh, a senior Congress leader, is for bringing the Prime Minister under the Lokpal. Dr. Manmohan Singh too has agreed to this proposal. Those who have refused to agree are his ministers, who, it is understood, have a stake in the status quo.
Corruption did not transform itself into an industry in one day. After decades of hard work, done by the corrupt, this day has come. Today corruption is a full-fledged corporation, having its laws and bylaws, rules and regulations and targets. It is a matter of common sense that in the beginning the source of sleaze was too-small to be plugged by just a pin or a needle. Today high dames would be washed away by its ever-rising powerful waves.
Just recall the Draft Bill that was, 10 years ago, prepared by Mr. Justice Jeevan Reddy, who then headed the Law Commission, which envisaged confiscation of property of the convicted corrupt under the Prevention of Corruption Act. But neither the Vajpayee-led NDA nor the Manmohan Singh-led UPA realised the importance of this small but valuable suggestion by a Constitutional expert. Perhaps they did not care to see it.
Our feeling is that because of the high level respectables eluding the Congressmen involvement in the dirt, no action was and is being taken today against the suspects.
Even today our insensate government can take some corrective steps. For example, can it not introduce a legislation to take over the accounts of Indian nationals who have their money in the tax havens? As Mr. Fali S. Nariman suggests: Why not appoint a custodian for these accounts, who should release the money only after the account holder proves that he has transferred the money officially after the government approval?
As all of us know, that 2 G scam involved huge sums of money. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has said that the money lost to the exchequer was to the tune of Rs. one lakh crore. Even our lotus-eating government has admitted the loss to the tune of Rs. 30,000 crore. Does the conscience of those who allowed this not prick at the national loss?
For the higher judiciary, we can have a Judicial Ombudsman by selecting one from the retired Supreme Court judges.
Ideally the Lokpal should have the powers like that of the CAG, or the Election Commission.
LONE BATTLE
As the matters stand, the Congress is fighting a lone battle. Either the Congress itself has preferred this loneliness or realising the weight of the civil society argument, its allies have deserted it. Its political partners have not so far extended their hands of cooperation to the Congress. The Trinamool Congress, the DMK and the NCP are cold on the hot subject. Is it a matter of credit, which, the Congress feels, should go to none but to itself? If so, why not decide to fight the on-coming general elections also alone? But the juvenile experiment has already failed during the last two elections.
Currently the Congress functionaries are too-busy with the Telangana, Naxalite and Yogi Ramdev issues and the civil society issue, which is not just an issue but a potential mass movement question. The reason is: Basically the Lokpal is an issue dealing with basic values of a healthy society like honesty, sincerity, probity, and accountability.
MUSLIM VIEW
The opinion of the principal minority of the country is: All the citizens of India whether Hindus or Muslims, higher castes or lower castes, Sikhs or Parsis, are all equal whatever their volume of wealth, degrees and diplomas of education, and status. Respectability belongs to those alone (repeat alone) who are the most pious and the most Godfearing.
The Congress would render a significant service to the development of the country by rejecting the current standards of the low and the high. The low is one who is corrupt and the high is one who is upright. Morality and probity should constitute the criterion of high and low.
That is why we say the voice of the 5th Estate should be listened to. The government would ignore it at its own peril.
UN-ATTENDED
Another unattended question is: Why the Central Government has not, till date, initiated criminal proceedings against those who wanted to create a “Godhra-like situation” on June 5 at the Ramlila Grounds. An elegant lady belonging to ANHAD, Ms. Shabnam Hashmi has pointed out: “I have got 100 % confirmed news that the RSS had done all the preparations to burn Ramdev’s anti-corruption camp in Delhi at about 3 a.m. on June 5. After that in the communally sensitive atmosphere their plan was to stage post-Godhra like riots across the country…. Had RSS been successful in its sinister plans, the country would have seen the worst times in its history the mother of Saffron ideology had a well-chalked out plan to state communal riots post burning of Ramdev’s camp.”
And if so, what was the rationale behind belabouring the sleeping gathering, also having the elderly, the ailing women and children? The news stands, to some extent, to commonsense because the sharks have a history to that effect. They had reportedly threatened with enacting an anti-Muslim anarchic situation when Mrs. Sonia Gandhi had, in 2004, the elections and the Congress wanted to seat her in the chair of Prime Minister.