The government, in a knee jerk reaction, has already committed the mistake of making them members of the Lokpal bill joint drafting committee. To that extent it is laudable that the civil society leaders had won the first round. However, after making the government negotiators agree on many points of differences between the Janlokpal bill and the government’s bill, the Anna team failed in persuading the drafting committee to include the PM, judiciary and the government servants under the purview of the bill. So the government won the second round while the civil society leaders ended up in making noise and now Anna Hazare is threatening to go on fast.

The question is how long can this threat and blackmail of the civil society leaders work? Not for long, going by the indications that while Anna Hazare’s fast at the Jantar Mantar worked in April, this time it may not be as successful. The government, after learning a lesson from allowing Baba Ramdev to hold a meeting at Ramlila ground last month, will not commit the same mistake again by allowing Anna Hazare to go on fast at Jantar Mantar once again. While the civil society leaders are making a loud noise about this, the government can get away with the excuse that it may disturb law and order in the city.

Secondly, the Anna team has not chosen the right moment to go on fast again. Their main demand is that the Parliament should pass the Lokpal bill by August 15. How do they expect the lawmakers to accept this condition when there is a process of lawmaking? The bill, after introduction may be sent to the select committee for a thorough study and this committee cannot be told to come back to the house within a few days even to please the Anna team. Moreover, in what shape the final bill comes out is the prerogative of the Parliament and not team Anna. The civil society cannot take away the rights of the parliamentarians, which is to make law. At the most they can persuade the political parties to include amendments to enable the final bill closer to their Janlokpal bill.

The Anna team is also experimenting new avenues by conducting a so-called referendum in the constituency of the HRD minister Kapil Sibal, who was one of the main architects of the Government bill. Although it is called referendum it was only a kind of opinion poll. One does not know how accurate is the survey done by the team Anna but the government cannot take any decision on the basis of such “referendum”.

What are the main points of criticisms of the government Lokpal bill? The first is that the public cannot file complaints and they can only be sent to the Speaker or Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, who in turn would forward it to Lokpal. The second is that Lokpal will be a mere advisory body and no power to sanction punishment to guilty officials. The third is in the composition of Lokpal only three members are required to be retired judges and there is no provision form members from other backgrounds. Fourthly, the complainants will face severe punishment if their complaints turn out to be false. The most important thing is that the Prime Minister and the higher judiciary will be outside the purview of the Lokpal.

On the other hand, the Janlokpal bill seeks to repeal the Central vigilance act and merge it with Lokpal but this would defeat the purpose of the law as entrusting both investigating and prosecuting authorities to a single agency is not good. .

Secondly, the Janlokpal bill provides that no complaint can be dismissed without hearing. This too may become defective, as the Lokpal may not have the time and resources to determine the adminissibility. Thirdly, the Janlokpal bill gives sweeping powers to the Lokpal over the three organs of judiciary, executive and legislature, and for that, certain fundamental features of the constitution may have to be amended.

Even after several meetings, the government negotiators and the civil society representatives could not reach an agreement, as there were fundamental differences like the inclusion of prime minister and higher judiciary and government servants within the ambit of Lokpal. The agreement was on 34 of the 40 points.

No one will grudge the credit to the Anna team for brining corruption issue to focus. Whether they succeed in their effort or not, the issue has caught the attention of the people and will remain alive. To that extent they certainly get kudos.

The second fast by Anna may be counter productive. It is time that Anna and others leave the Lokpal to Parliament to give a proper shape. The only way they can do is to lobby with the Parliamentarians rather than thundering, “We are maliks and they are our servants.” They should allow the game to be played in Parliament now. Let the lawmakers debate and thrash out the bill and let the standing committee make a thorough study of it. Only then they would have made some success of the cause, which they have undertaken. Interfering in the process of lawmaking is not going to help in any way. The sooner they realize this, the better.

Since they have done a good job of creating public awareness about corruption, now they should concentrate on other issues touching the everyday life of people like price rise, security, terrorism and such other issues to bring pressure on the government. The Anna team has given confidence to the people of India to take up issues of concern and generate many more Anna teams but they will succeed only by reasoning and not by blackmail and threats. (IPA Service)