Remove the shield of the corrupt…..ARVIND KEJRIWAL
The government needs to do more than just pay lip service to anti-corruption measures — a lame Lokpal Bill is the latest example. With public opinion building up, redrafting the Bill to strengthen anti-graft public offices looks the only way forward.
The government needs to do more than just pay lip service to anti-corruption measures — a lame Lokpal Bill is the latest example. With public opinion building up, redrafting the Bill to strengthen anti-graft public offices looks the only way forward.
Why is it that no one goes to jail despite overwhelming evidence against corruption in public domain? Because we have such anti-corruption laws and agencies that are effective on paper alone.
At the Centre, we have the central vigilance commission, which, though independent, is an advisory body. Predictably, advice against a senior officer is rarely accepted. According to a former central vigilance commissioner, during his tenure, whenever he felt that an officer ought to go to jail or needed to be dismissed, all he got was a warning.
The CBI, though independent, is completely under the control of the government. Before starting an investigation or before prosecuting an officer or politician, it has to take permission from the government, which often runs on the support of those who have to be investigated or prosecuted. The anti-corruption machinery at the state level is similarly compromised. It is either in the control of the state government or merely advisory in nature.
Likewise, our anti-corruption laws are highly inadequate. You will be shocked to know that even when someone is convicted of corruption, there is no provision to recover the loss he caused to the government or to confiscate his ill-gotten wealth. He can actually come out of jail and enjoy the bribe money! Therefore, we need complete overhaul of our anti-corruption setup if we are serious about tackling corruption.
Many people ask me, “Can India turn around?” Indians are by and large honest, intelligent and hard-working. They are victims of a rotten system.
Corruption in the 1970s Hong Kong was much worse than what we have in India today. Collusion between police and mafia increased and crime rate went up. Lakhs of people came on the streets. As a result, the government was forced to set up an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), which was given complete powers.
In the first instance, ICAC sacked 119 of the 180 police officers. This sent a strong message to the bureaucracy that corruption would not be tolerated. Today, Hong Kong has one of the most honest governance machinery.
India can also turn around if we have a similar anti-corruption body.
One thought that so much public anger was a great political opportunity for a sincere government to push for radical reforms of anti-corruption systems. However, public criticism seems to have made little difference to the Manmohan Singh government. For the Lokpal Bill drafted by the government, which is being touted as an antidote to corruption, is an insult to the whole nation.
It proposes to set up an institution of Lokpal to enquire into complaints of corruption against politicians. But Lokpal will neither have powers to suo moto initiate enquiry into a case directly, nor can it accept a complaint from the public. One could make a complaint to the Speaker (or chairperson). Only the complaints forwarded by the Speaker could be enquired into by the Lokpal. Speaker, being from the ruling party, will naturally forward only those complaints that are against Opposition party MPs.
After conducting an enquiry, Lokpal will not have the power to take action. It will forward its report to the Speaker and the Prime Minister. If the complaint is against a Cabinet minister, the Prime Minister will decide whether to take action against the minister on the basis of Lokpal’s report. In the coalition era, would the PM have political courage to act against his ministers?
For instance, if such a Lokpal had recommended A Raja’s prosecution, would Manmohan Singh have had the courage to prosecute Raja? In the case of PM and MPs, the Bill says that the decision to prosecute will be taken by the House. So, if Lokpal made a report against the PM or an MP of the ruling party, will the House ever give such a permission?
On the face of it, the government’s Bill sounds absurd. It is meant to completely insulate the political class from any kind of action.
In contrast, civil society has drafted an alternate Lokpal Bill. The first draft was prepared by Prashant Bhushan, Justice Santosh Hegde and myself.
The Bill was subsequently discussed widely at several public platforms and improved on the basis of public feedback. It has been vetted and is being supported by Kiran Bedi , Fali S Nariman, Shanti Bhushan, Anna Hazare, National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) and many others.
It suggests a Lokpal completely independent of the central government. The part of CBI that deals with corruption should be merged with the Lokpal. The CVC and the vigilance setup in the central government should be merged with the Lokpal. The Lokpal shall have jurisdiction over bureaucrats, politicians and judges. The Lokpal shall have powers to initiate investigations and prosecution without needing permission from any agency.
If charges are proved and conviction takes place, loss to the exchequer caused by his wrongdoing shall be recovered from all those convicted. Public grievances are often linked to demands and expectations of bribery. The Lokpal shall act as appellate authority and supervisory body for grievance redressal systems in all central government departments.
The Lokpal shall be responsible for providing protection against physical and professional victimisation of whistleblowers. Members and chairperson in the Lokpal shall be selected through a transparent and participatory process. The functioning of the Lokpal shall be completely transparent to avoid it from becoming a hub of corruption.
A complaint of wrongdoing against an official of the Lokpal shall be investigated and acted upon within a month through a transparent enquiry process. Similar independent bodies called the Lokayuktas have been suggested for states. The existing Lokayuktas in some states are advisory and ineffective.
Although a copy of this Bill was sent to the government about two months ago, there has been no response so far. The government does not seem to be in a mood to take genuine steps. The Opposition would be well advised to stall Parliament for the enactment of civil society-drafted Lokpal Bill than for JPC.
The Hong Kong government enacted ICAC Bill because lakhs of citizens took to the street. In India too, people will have to take to the street.
To demand an effective and strong Lokpal, thousands of people in Delhi will march from Ramlila Grounds to Jantar Mantar on January 30. Such marches are taking place in more than 20 cities in India and in some cities in the US. India must come on streets on January 30 to shout ‘Enough is enough’.
(The author is co-founder of Parivartan)