Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Jan Lokpal Bill

I have seen few allegations being made on The JLB. I have listened to both the sides, The Government side and the IAC (India Against Corruption) side, and on the basis of the facts available, motives involved and the mood of the situation, I have tried to voice my opinion.

This article is not just about JLB but it also raises concerns related to the loopholes in our system.
I don't believe that The JLB is a sure shot method to eradicate all evils of our corrupted society. For structural inequality and failure of constitutional machinery have a grave role to play in this and we need more efficient efforts in this direction. But you can not allow people to do wrong things on the ground of inequality and the condition of have and have not's.

In a society where around half of janta is below poverty line, the state is bound first to fulfill the belly of one who is the most hungry and to provide him equal justice. Therefore, today the primary need is to first create an independent agency where the voice of people from even the weakest section of society can be heard without any bureaucratic hurdles and which can guarantee that preventive action will be taken against the thugs in a resonable time frame.
I am not saying to follow the oppressive path of our neighbour China and try to achieve development at any cost but still there needs to be more accountability of state towards recent issues such as farmer's suicides, 2G scams,  CWG scams,  black marketing, hoarding and so on  and if an autocratic and iron handed JLB is the way then let it be. It might also be that the members in Team Anna have their vested interests but then should we leave the government to take another four decades to consider the bill.

Also we must not forget that our constitution has empowered us with the right to amend laws so if there is proper awareness amongst our countrymen in tandem with the political will in the government then together we can exercise those rights anytime to make proper amendments.
We must understand the JLB is not the same as any fascist or maoist movement. It wants to overthrow the corruption and the faulty system of governance and not the government itself. Deeply ingrained in it the the spirit of national integration.

Today, if we consider an urban better off middle class man who has played a massive role in this movement then from birth till death he has to face grafting at various levels whether it is the matter of getting the birth/death certificates from the hospital, paying hefty donation for getting admissions into school colleges or paying to agents for hazzlefree processing of passports , licenses, tenders etc.

We witness that in the different cases of corruption it is the uncontrolled ambitious character of people to become rich and attain the so called elite status that motivates them for these nefarious activities. So we also need to bring many economic reforms. We need to make many more struggles for complete freedom. The most positive side of the story coming out of this movement is that people of India are now starting to get engaged in strengthening democracy.

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