Much a do about Lokpal Bill

The last few weeks have been dominated by the Jan Lokpal Bill. It started with news reports of Indians having the largest number of Swiss Bank Accounts. Then Baba Ramdev tried to get political foothold on the ground of ant corruption. But even before he could make much out of it the Anna Hazare group came forward and took the centre stage and snatched the issue out of his hands .

To salvage his political agenda Baba Ramdev staged a show at Ramlila Maidan. Once faced with police force he showed his true nature by donning female cloths and flying back to his mountain hideout. Then when the Income Tax department started asking questions about his various companies and financial empire, he quietly went into get away after caught by police for jumping a red light or riding a two wheeler without helmet.to the silent mode. Seems his financial transactions were not so clean after all. But at the same time the midnight police action made people remember the dark ages of emergency.

There was also a minor controversy on whether dancing to the tune of patriotic songs at Rajghat by Susma Swaraj was inappropriate or not.

Under pressure the Govt. agreed to create a joint committee. They must have thought that like everything else that gets drowned in a committee, even this would get a decent burial. And also possibly because they had very little faith on the Civil Society to come up with a workable bill. But the Civil Society members were determined. They were also people who are or had been part of the same official machinery that they now so vociferously claim to be corrupt. One an ex super-cop. One an ex IRS officer and two noted lawyers. The result was two alternative format of Lokpal bills.

And then all hell broke loose.

Anna declared his intention to go on a fast. The official machinery showed itself in poor light by first allowing him a place to fast and then withdrawing permission. They also tired to pull a Ramdev on Anna by trying to prove him corrupt. But unlike Ramdev, Anna has no business ventures to protect. So the move backfired with the public coming strongly behind Anna. Even those who were earlier neutral now stood behind him on the plea of democratic rights.

Finally good sense prevailed within the Govt and they realised that the issue could pull down the Govt itself. So now the parliament has taken a decision to consider "some" of the demands and Anna has taken the symbolic glass of juice - from a steel glass. Public is gong all gaga in all major cites.

The media had a field day covering the events and their TRP went off the chart. Of course the most thankful group would be MS Dhoni and has boys as their shameful surrender of the four tests and the crown of the top Cricketing country to the British never made it to the top story.

But the question is will the Lokpal Bill stop corruption? in all probability - no.

Corruption has reached the genetic level of the people of the country. More importantly if corruption is the root cause of all problems then the root cause of corruption are the people who are willing to offer bribes and entice people to become corrupt. Of all the people that were that were in Rajghat possibly every single one had offered money at least once to get away after caught by police for jumping a red light or riding a two wheeler without helmet.

Almost every single person of this country is guilty of either practising corruption or abetting corruption in one form or other by way of;

1. offering to get away after caught by police for jumping a red light or riding a two wheeler without helmet
2. offering money to jump queue
3. offering money to get admission of child into some educational institution or medical, engineering or management institute
4. offering money to get a job
5. hiding income while fling income tax or not fling tax returns at all
6. avoiding tax at the time of purchase of any tem by asking for a "kachcha" bill in place of proper invoice.

the list can go on and on.

Honestly is relative. There would always be conflict within a person between his wants and needs and his moral force to stay honest. But ultimately no one is God. And sooner or later his needs would prevail over his morals. So a person who remains honest when offered Rs. 1 lakh may not remain honest when offered Rs. 1 Crore.

The basic issue is that any anti-corruption bill will never be successful until it contains provisions to meet out strict punishment to the persons who offer bribes and entice people to become corrupt. In fact they should be dealt with stricter punishment as they are the root cause of corruption.

There is also the issue of giving too much power in the hand of one authority. Will the team Anna show that they also respect democracy by accepting the alternate views and incorporating them in the final draft?

And finally - If the need comes, who will lokpal the Lokpal?