Corruption is a menace in everybody’s life . That is the reason the anti-corruption movement in the country over the last few months has gained so much popularity among the masses . A bill that has been waiting for 42 years to be passed became the main issue of contention . It was important that people knew and the government was reminded that such a bill existed. Today the name od that bill is common knowledge. The lokpal bill has been getting the attention it so badly needed.And for that we need to thank anna hazare.Crowds gathered at various locations across the nation to support the cause.To wake a government who for the last seven years did not bother about the bill , needed that kind of jolt . People needed a platform to vent their anger at the government for not acting against corruption even after scam behind scam defamed UPA II .That anger is the strength of this movement.
Led by Team Anna , this movement gained strength over 3-4 months . The movement attracted the attention of the government , the common man and the media .
What happened after that is well known .
Team Anna wanted parliament to pass the lokpal bill and only the their version of it , with “minor amendments” and without going through the standing commitee of parliament , and do it by the 30th of august .
Why go through the standing commitee you ask ?
The standing commitee is the one , the only place where a common citizen can give his inputs about a particular bill while it is being finally drafted . If your views are backed with arguments and it can convince the commitee , it will be included in the draft , subject to cabinet approval . If the points of veiw are acceptable , the cabinet will accept it . The RTI act ,for example , was amended a 153 times in the standing commitee ! And it did not have the backing of 10,000 people on the streets and a 74 year old person on a fast unto death ! It just required a group of people who had the will to make a rotting system work , not bypass it and condemn it .
Team Anna has not just bypassed a step in law making but also snatched away the legal right of many individuals and organisations who wanted to have their voices heard , democratically !
It’s a democracy . You have the right to speech and so does everyone else . Just because you gather as a crowd of 10,000 and drown my voice , does not mean that I do not have the right to be heard !
There was an advertisement in all newspapers inviting suggestions from the public on the bill . For people like Aruna Roy and JayPrakash Narayan , who have different opininons to that of team anna , this was the chance to be heard . Team Anna claimed that they had consulted lots of people on the issue and were convinced that they had everyone’s opinion on board . Clearly , they did not and clearly they still do not care .
First of all , a law is not the answer to corruption ! If it was , the prevention of corruption act would have done something more . This huge movement for one bill is a waste of people’s energies ! If this movement was directed towards a larger systemic change ,then I would have been optimistic of getting rid of corruption ! Getting parliament to pass this jan lokpal bill should not be considered as a great victory of people’s power ! And anyone who has ever paid a bribe in his life does not have the moral right to be part of an anticorruption protest ! The attitude that ” I paid a bribe because there is no other way out ” is ruining this country ! That is the reason we are so corrupt a people ! That is where you need to be the change u wanna see ! Not by claiming moral victory over the govt simply because u got them to pass a bill with a 74 year old on a fast unto death and without thinking that there are people who have different opinions on the bill !
Team Anna has basically said ” You are either with us , or you are with them ” . Anyone who opposes the movement is pro corruption , anti national and what not . Hell , I’ve been called an armchair critic and neckdeep in corruption for not going on the streets and supporting anna !
Anna Hazare is no Mahatma Gandhi . This movement is not Gandhian . It is non violent , not Gandhian .
The great Mahatma resorted to fasts 28 times in his life . None of which were fasts unto death . Further , only one of those was against the government . The rest were for communal peace and things like that .
Yes , the system is rotting but jumping over it is not the answer. There are procedures in lawmaking and they take time . Take time because our’s is a large nation and to get a large number of opinions and to arrive at a consensus takes time ! When you accept that the Lokpal is an important bill , also acknowledge that you should give it time to be debated in parliament after it is tabled . Team Anna might have debated with thousands and possibly lakhs of people . But then you need to give the other thousands and lakhs of people a chance to voice their opinion ! That is what parliament does .
Today , the govt agreed to a debate in parliament . The debate is on even as I type . Anna is still on fast . The debate so far has made every party’s stand on the lokpal bill clear . Then Team Anna comes out and says “we want a resolution , we want a vote ” . The parliament is debating the lokpal bill today not only to satisfy anna’s demand and get him to break his fast . There is a larger point , a more significant point everyone is missing . Its a debate to find the best of the jan lokpal bill and modify some other points and give the standing commitee a reference to base their own debates ! And finally out of all this will emerge a strong lokpal bill !
Now what is the need here to read the wordings of some resolution and ask for votes before anna breaks his fast ? Unlike the previous 8 times this bill has been brought to parliament ,this time people and the media are not only aware but also keeping a close eye on proceedings . Anna’s latest fast is totally uncalledfor and unjustified . Team Anna had the nation galvanised but by focussing the entire crowd’s attention on only the lokpal bill , has scored a self goal . By not calling off anna’s fast even after the entire loksabha and the prime minister no less made appeals , has also overplayed that trumpcard they had .
When the Lokpal debate eventually ends , this movement is in the risk of thinning out simply because not enough attention has been paid in getting people to really ” be the change they want to see ” . This movement should go beyond the lokpal bill . This movement should not just be standing at ramlila maidan and freedom park and shouting slogans . That is noless “armchair critisism” as some may call this blog . Get people to clean the system ! Get them to not be bribe-givers . It’s very similar to illegal poaching. If there are people to buy snake skin bags , poachers will kill for it . My Environmental education book taught me that if the buying stops , the selling will stop too . If the selling stops , the killing will stop . It’s no different here ! As long as there are people to pay bribes , people will take bribes. If the giving stops , the taking will stop too . But in this largely hypocritical society , people will dismiss this suggestion as impractical . The implementation of an institution that will have to handle the complaints and grievances of 1.2 billion indians is more practical is it ?
Any movement that finds itself to be on a higher moralground than everyone else will never succeed . If Team Anna feels that civil society is the highly exagerated figure of 25 lakhs on the streets of india in the name of anticorruption and anna hazare , they are wrong . There are scores of other honest indians who support your cause , not your method . Respect their views . Let them be heard , not on your ramlila maidan platform . On the platform where they have been given the constitutional right to be heard , in front of the parliamentary commitees . Don’t restrict their rights by exercising yours .
