Dr PK Vasudeva: It’s time to place a strong Lokpal Bill in Parliament

It is unfortunate that the UPA government has mishandled the Anna Hazare movement every step of the way. The tragic comedy of Anna’s arrest and the subsequent release by the Delhi police is unpardonable. The government miscalculated the force of the janta behind Anna Hazare. It is time now to proceed to an informed and nuanced public discussion on the Lokpal Bill, if the proposed protest sit-in is not to acquire intimidator tones.

For the first time India’s educated English-speaking middle class, a little less than one third of the population, has taken to the streets. It is evident that the government has run out of options, having tried every trick it knew and come a cropper each time.

It first tried to run down the movement by the simple tactic of painting it in communal colours saying that the right-wing forces are behind the movement. When that did not work, it tried the outflanking move of divide and rule by propping up a parallel movement through yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who mistakenly uttered that the prime minister should not fall under the Jan Lokpal Bill, but later took a U-turn that needs to be analysed separately.

Third, it attempted to stall the process through sham consultations between the government and the civil society without involving the members of the opposition parties, resulting in tabling a weak Lokpal Bill in Parliament as had been done for the last 42 years.

Finally, the Congress spokesmen started accusing Anna to be the most corrupt civil society member till Rahul Gandhi issued a gag order to them.

What is most disappointing is that the prime minister during his speech in both Houses of Parliament chose, despite such overwhelming evidence of governmental failure, to recount merely the sequence of events, besides trotting out some well-worn clichés about mysterious forces (perhaps the US who urged India to allow Anna’s peaceful protest) out to destabilise the country.
The PM’s foreign hand strategy recoiled and brought shame to the government.

Amid allegations by a Congress spokesman that the US was behind Anna Hazare’s agitation, US Senator John McCain subsequently clarified that America neither gets involved in such agitations nor has any intention of doing so.

Manmohan Singh could have easily given the debate a political context by conceding the point that his government would be guided by the collective wisdom of the members of both Houses of Parliament and the wishes of the people. It is not as though the government did not have a prima facie case on whether it is desirable to include the office of the prime minister and judiciary within the ambit of Jan Lokpal Bill as also on certain other provisions that Team Anna Hazare proposed.

It could, for instance, have easily argued for a clause-by-clause reading of the Bill proposed by Team Anna and left it to the collective judgment of the members of Parliament. Additionally, it could have also suggested that the key features of the Bill be discussed in public seminars and the views of the experts be taken before finalising the draft.

These two steps would have refurbished its credentials as fighting corruption in public life while also seeking public opinion in the drafting of the legislation.

The problem is that the government is arrogant and still heady with its success in the 2009 electoral battle and has assumed that such success confers on it political legitimacy for governance, irrespective of what public opinion already stands expressed. It is taking the shelter of Parliament forgetting that according to the Constitution as per the well-known, learned jurist Fali Nariman it is “We the People” who are superior to parliamentarians.

Hence, nothing that civil society proposes has either political or moral authority going for it. The problem with this approach is that the government has completely forgotten the legitimate demands of the people who are actually more powerful than the Parliament.
Manmohan Singh may have succeeded spectacularly once in 2008, by refusing to budge on the question of the nuclear deal with the United States and got everyone to rally around him with the help of a reluctant BJP which supported the move after the ruling party agreed on certain other compromises.

The government must listen to the will of the people and immediately invite Team Anna for negotiations and place a strong Lokpal Bill in the Parliament with consensus.

— The author is adviser, Institute of Development Studies and Training l vasu022@gmail.com