The day after

There is an ancient saying in Malayalam regarding an old Brahmin (like what I may be in some decades from now)…it goes this way ….…(eliye kollan illam kathicha namboodiri). It is about this Brahmin (Namboodiri) who burned down (kathicha) his house (illam) to kill (kollan) a troublesome and elusive rat (eli).

In the attempt he lost his house and was in doubt that the rat escaped.

This thing about the Lokpal has spiraled out of control. Vested interests are bend on getting a ‘strong’ Lokpal as a short term goal for electoral gains. Lokpal can not provide a one window solution to eradicate corruption. The knowledgeable will ask ‘who said so?’. Pray then what will Lokpal provide that is not already there? It does not matter that since independence we introduced a progressive constitution, strong democratically elected parliament, an ‘efficient’ bureaucracy, an impartial judiciary, a strong police force (including central, paramilitary and state forces), a strict and ‘neutral’ election commission, A professional and independent investigation agency (CBI), a vigilance commission to prevent corruption (CVC), a central auditing agency (CAG) et al. Of all these as on date only the Election Commission ( though with some controversies erupting now and then) is functioning with a modicum of impartiality due the initiative taken by one ‘maverick’  by the name TN Seshan, a couple of decades back.

Now this Lokpal s aimed to cleanse the system with one stroke and probably virtually paralyse all of the above. (Wonder why they do not want to bring in the Armed Forces under Lokpal as well, anybody?)

The aspect of subverting the constitution or parliamentary procedures should be non negotiable for seemingly short term goals whose effectiveness is suspect.  Any type of Lokpal bill is only a short term goal. In a democracy no institution with absolute powers (or even near-absolute) will work. Soon a Mahalokpal may have to come in.

The fact of the matter is that the country cannot create an institution in good faith, hoping that it will work.  As seen from experience, it will not work. There must be checks and balances to keep it within defined boundaries. This aspect deserves a lot more attention than it is being given. Big and far reaching decisions are being taken after discussions dominated by only rhetoric at street corners. Decisions at National level have to be taken with the head and not with the hearts and for votes playing on the sentiments of unsuspecting electorate. 

As I have always maintained Anna’s intentions are right, his methods and focus actually distracts from the ultimate goal. In the process nobody knows what is coming. Whether a very strong lokpal coming as it seems from a debate outside the parliament, will be a panacea for eradicating corruption or will it turn out to be a Frankenstein is a moot point.

Even then ‘killing the rat’ will be a long haul.