Compared to that onslaught, the charges against Arvind Kejriwal and others are mild, as of now. Given the present tattered reputation of the Manmohan Singh government, it is unlikely that it will be as venomous as the Vajpayee government. But, if there is a lesson from these episodes, it is that it is high time that a powerful ombudsman is installed. Otherwise, there is no way that the government’s vindictiveness against its opponents can be curbed.

So, the Lokpal is not only necessary to catch the corrupt. It will also act as a check against official arbitrariness if only because it will be a body to which complaints can be filed with a reasonable expectation that they will be seriously considered. This will be a sea change from the present arrangement, where inquiry commissions are set up which prove to be virtually useless not only because of the inordinately long time they take to come to a conclusion, but also because their verdicts do not always carry conviction.

To return to the Tehelka case, in a classic instance of shooting the messenger, the terms of reference of the first commission, which was set up to probe the scandal, were to probe the credentials of the journalists who had conducted the sting operations ! After the judge heading it resigned, another judge was appointed, but he gave Fernandes a clean chit in his interim report. Considering that the Narendra Modi government, too, has been exonerated of any wrong-doing by the Nanavati-Mehta commission in its first report on the Gujarat riots, it is obvious that this form of inquiry is beginning to lose its credibility.

Hence, the need for a Lokpal. Since the kind of behaviour of which Laxman and Fernandes – in whose house a monetary transaction was secretly filmed – were accused fall in the category of corruption, the Lokpal can play a role in similar cases not only by preventing the harassment of whistle-blowers, but also by probing the alleged sin, which is its main business. But, that is not all. The fact that the CBI will have relative autonomy because of its close association with the Lokpal will also prevent its misuse by the government, which has not hesitated to use this premier investigating agency to target critics and even political adversaries.

What is more, autonomy can make other outfits like the police shed their dependence on the government. At present, the police officers and men seem to have no option but to meekly carry out the orders of their political bosses – whether it is let a community vent its anger on another, as they were apparently asked to do in Gujarat, or to let a gang of hooligans “invade” an area controlled by the latter’s political opponents, as in Nandigram.

Once, however, it is seen that an independent Lokpal is able to exert a restraining influence on the government, more and more police officers will be able to follow their conscience instead of illegal verbal orders from above. The resultant cleansing effect on the system as a whole will be immense. For this to happen, a credible ombudsman is unavoidable. But, the way in which its proponents are pushing its case is damaging rather than helping their cause. Instead of challenging and bad-mouthing the government, the political parties (except the Congress) and the parliamentary system, what the Anna camp could have done was to enlist the cooperation of activists like Aruna Roy, Jayaprakash Narayan and others to push its case.

But, the self-righteousness, which has guided the team from the start, has made it see everything in black and white, with only those who are with Anna being on the side of the angels. By their mulishness, they have only played into the government’s hands, which will embroil the activists in so many court cases that they will have little time for their main campaign. Moreover, their legal difficulties may not evoke too much sympathy because of their infuriating pompousness, which has unfortunately been encouraged by several television channels, both Hindi and English, which are more intent on augmenting the number of their viewers than on being objective.

The mistake which the civil activists made was to believe that since popular enthusiasm would carry them past the victory post, there was no need for tactical ploys. But what they did not realize was that the government was waiting for them to pause for breath before launching an offensive. (IPA Service)