Anna and the proposed Lokpal: Riders on a Horse with its Blinkers On

Anna and the proposed Lokpal: Riders on a Horse with its Blinkers On

Anna’s tirade against the Congress continues even as he renews his Lokpal campaign with vigor. Fully backed by the BJP and supported by the Left and other parties with whom Team Anna shares consensus on many issues, Anna is heading towards a showdown with the Centre and the Congress in particular. His digs at the Congress leaders have been on for some time. His regular digs at Sonia and now Rahul Gandhi, alleging that Rahul was responsible for what he saw as poor drafting of the Lokpal bill by the parliamentary standing committee, are in poor taste. Worse, he has not even spared the ailing Sharad Pawar. Anna Hazare's initial reaction to the attack on union agriculture minister Pawar angered many. Asked by reporters about his view on the attack on Pawar, who was slapped by a Sikh man, Hazare had said: "Was it only one slap?" At least Anna should have shown some respect and humane feelings towards a senior political figure of Pawar’s stature!

 His anti-Congress stance has suggested that he is on to some game plan to go after the Congress bigwigs. This is the kind of tactics that the masses associate with scheming politicians in general and not with reform-oriented peace-loving Gandhians who want to change the society for good. It has been clear that Anna is keen on latching on to a political hold of sorts. Note that he has repeatedly said that he would campaign against the Congress in the coming polls. His comments are often vitriolic and often it is surprising that one who is so vocal in expressing his political anger can even be seen as a Gandhian figure. Angry with the Congress for what he saw as not keeping the promise on the Lokpal bill and coming up with a poorly drafted bill, he retorted, “Yeh sarkar hai ki baniye ki dukan hai.” Using such an expression to vent his anger is improper to say the least. And what is wrong with the baniye ki dukaan itself? Does not it cater to all our needs? If the baniya closes shop, none of us will be able to have our meals in peace. And Anna would not be able to shoot his mouth off at will, as he does now (though he may say his regular fasts obviate the need for the baniya’s dukaan).

Coming to the proposed Lokpal itself, what is Anna up to? The proposed Lokpal has a narrow approach of fighting corruption, one that views the issue of corruption from the top down and fails to take into consideration the highly decentralised administrative structure in our country. With Lokpal acting as the one centralised institution to handle all cases of corruption—high-level scams to bribery among lower officials, it would be burdened with excessive functions. There would be diffusion of powers and the end result would be little of committed action and reform initiatives. The Lokpal would then need sufficiently trained personnel to carry out its functions. The proposed Lokpal wants to impose its authority from the top instead of involving the people and stakeholders in tackling corruption, especially corruption at the lower echelons. It is concerned most with the symptoms of corruption but what about the factors that give rise to it?

The proposed Lokpal’s authoritarianism cannot spell good for any democracy, leave alone a fragile and growing one like ours. We are reminded of the authoritarianism unleashed by the Emergency rule imposed by Indira Gandhi. After all, we still criticize the Emergency for its disregard to democracy and its authoritarian approach even though we got to see some benefits like regular attendance and discipline in offices and absence of lower level corruption. But the proposed Lokpal appears to tread on a similar path of authoritarianism and centralization without any real benefits. It appears to be moving like a horse in full speed with its blinkers on, with Team Anna riding on it: it threatens to mow down the unique federal character of our Constitution based on decentralization of powers; the independence of the judiciary in a democracy; and the importance of collective action in a society like ours. It even wants to bring the post of the prime minister under its ambit!

Much of the glorification around the proposed Lokpal is based on a misconception of it among the common people. People feel that once the proposed Lokpal comes in, the society will be free of corruption and all ills associated with it. In other words, it would be the advent of a sort of Ram Rajya (using the vocabulary of the BJP).  But what the proposed Lokpal is ultimately doing is biting off more than it can chew. And ultimately  it may give rise to a bureaucratic set-up smitten by the very corruption it hopes to address now!