ANNA HAZARE – THE ONLY WAY FORWARD by Nisser Dias

Last few days of the week millions of Indians especially the youth were glued either to their television sets or taking hour to hour account of the biggest crusade undertaken by an elderly statesman to drastically reduce the meteoric rise in corruption (in every form like dishonesty, fraud, sleaze, nepotism, bribery, discrimination, scams and scandals) in every single department of the Union government as well in the state governments in this country.

We are proud of the fact that we have the most honest prime minister in Dr. Manmohan Singh. But then a 70 odd year old Gandhian – Anna Hazare had to resort to fast unto death to force the government to formulate the Jan Lokpal Bill with 50 percent of civilian participation on the committee. That the Bill has been pending with successive Union governments since 1972 is a shame, but to force the government to immediately prepare the bill by resorting to fast unto death is a bigger shame. However there was a silver lining in dark cloud, it showed that if the people of this country come together for the right cause no government of any colour can withstand the pressure. Sadly though, it happens too rarely.

In my opening para, I used the words ‘to drastically reduce the meteoric rise in corruption’. I have not said ‘to end corruption’ because we can be rest assured that the political class or the bureaucratic class or the government servants that indulge in corruption will hit upon innovative methods to amass wealth other than their source of income. But with 50 percent of members being from the civil society there’s bound to be lot of checks and balances incorporated in the bill to check corruption.

At the same time I am of the opinion that if the corruption has attained such proportion, the general public at large is also to be blamed as it largely contributes to corrupt practices prevailing in this country. If the public had not to extend bribe to officials to speed up or rather cut short procedures to get their work done in a jiffy the authorities would not have accepted the bribe. If candidates had not to pay huge amounts as bribe to secure government jobs. As of today it has become a sort of a right to demand and accept money. Over and above we cry foul that corruption is soaring in this country. We are a part and parcel of the system we ourselves have developed but time has come to break free from the shackles of this bondage and move towards a goal of making India corrupt free.

Till date our only avenue to fight corruption was through the courts, but in recent times our judiciary at the highest level too has come under the scanner for its propriety and functioning thereby muddling public opinion of the third pillar of the democracy. There are allegations flying thick and thin of former Chief Justice of India’s immediate family amassing huge wealth during his tenure. Thus Anna Hazare’s demand to immediately draft the Jan Lokpal Bill has come at the right time.

Union governments or state governments have always been slow to initiate punitive action against elected representatives mostly for exigencies reasons either to continue governing or not to antagonize coalition partners. For example Bofors scandal dragged on for more than 25 years and the end result is everybody goes scot free with the court only passing strictures against the country’s premier investigating body the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The courts are yet to conclude the hearing in the coffin scandal during the tenure of George Fernandes in the NDA government. Can we digest that our politicians and bureaucrats indulge in scandals even with the corpses of our soldiers. Then we have the Fodder scam involving Laloo Prasad Yadav. In every state of India without exception there are corruption charges against politicians. Take the recent cases in Mumbai and Karnataka, chief ministers of both the states are allegedly involved in land scandals. While the Congress party axed its chief minister in Mumbai, the BJP which prides itself to be a political party with a difference continued with their tainted chief minister in Karnataka. Can we forget the 2G spectrum scam where the Country lost lakhs of crores of revenue.

Coming to own state of Goa there are scandals and scams galore, if one scratches with a finger corruption charges will surface not only against all the ministers and chief minister and their families but also against their personal assistants. There are allegations that the chief minister Digambar Kamat’s PA had started leasing mines even when the CM was the Power minister in the BJP led coalition government. Another former minister’s PA was alleged to have purchased 10 shops in a row in Caranzalem. Now this same person was sentenced to imprisonment under Negotiable Instrument Act (cheque bouncing case). Recently another PA of a minister released a full page birthday advertisements on news dailies. How come these PAs have come across huge amounts of money suddenly?

Since the last more than 7 years of the Congress rule, Goa has been reeling under allegations of massive corruption, Goa Regional Plan 2011, illegal allotment of land for SEZs, huge amounts of exchequer’s money frivolously spent on garbage treatment plants, excise scam, High Security Registration Plate, Politician-Police-Drug Lords nexus, illegal mining, the recent distribution water tanks scam exposed during the last assembly session, then the infamous Education Minister being detained at the International airport in Mumbai with excessive Indian and Foreign currency. In fact in the Digambar Kamat led government there is a scam in each and every ministry.

Jan Lokpal legislation (Citizen’s Ombudsman Bill) seeks to curtail the corruption indulged by every person in public service be it the politician, judge or bureaucrat. It is rightfully demanding autonomous powers with man and machinery to investigate and prosecute any public servant alleged of corruption.

The bill should include that the moment prima facie evidence is made out against politicians, they should be stripped immediately from ministerial position and after the tenure is complete they should be barred from contesting anymore elections. As Anna Hazare said the union government giving in to his demand is just the beginning we got a long road ahead. Just like the people of this country made the RTI Act a weapon in their hands, Jan Lokpal Bill should be seen as a nuclear warhead in the hands of a common man.