Rakesh Khar: The futility of a fast!

Barely 100 days after he broke his 13-day fast-unto-death, civil society hero Anna Hazare is set to sit on a day-long fast on December 11 at Jantar Mantar, a place from where he launched his national Jan Lokpal crusade in April.

Hazare, 74, put the nation on the edge with his unprecedented battle to get an effective Lokpal off the ground. Wedded to the belief that the Lokpal is the ultimate panacea for all ills facing the country, he ignited a dream of an India free of all corruption.

Drawing the indifferent middle class out of its inertia, Hazare sensitised a dithering nation bringing it face-to-face with the ugly monster of corruption and its cancerous growth in the society. This by no means is an easy accomplishment with the mighty and powerful actually scared for the first time of being caught in an act of corruption.

But for every candle lit in his support at India Gate and for every cap worn at Ramlila ground, Hazare’s decision to go on a fast yet again is a case of a dream turned sour. An easy explanation for this crash-landing for millions of his supporters would be to hold government squarely responsible for dithering on key recommendations made by the civil society.

This to a large extent is true — this government would be best known for its flip-flops — but does not reflect the ground reality. Notwithstanding the hysteria over the fast, the hard truth is that even if the government were to accept a majority of Hazare’s recommendations, the corruption scene on ground would not dramatically change overnight.

A group of civil society leaders drawn from various walks of life and comprising Deepak Parekh, Bimal Jalan, Azim Premji, and Justice BN Srikrishna argued in an open letter in October that the draft Lokpal Bill was at best intended to address episodic corruption but unlikely to have any significant impact on the day-to-day corruption that was insidious and demeaning. The performance of the state Lokayuktas bears testimony to the episodic nature of dealing with corruption.

The central draw to Hazare movement has been the common man’s frustration over the ever increasing everyday corruption. If you were to profile the key segments of population that got drawn to Ramlila and elsewhere, an overwhelming majority would comprise the poor, the lower middle class, and some sections of the middle class, with a few chief executives and celebrities, thrown in for effect.

From a rickshaw puller in the NCR region to a ‘kirana shopkeeper’ to a lower middle class parent seeking admission for his or her ward in a private school or seeking a passport to a small and medium entrepreneur to a young post graduate seeking to set up an enterprise, the key corruption pain points are common with no or little hope for redemption under the Lokpal.

Consider some common services consumed by a vast population on a day to day basis and breed corruption — the public distribution system, health, education, electricity, water supply, land records and registration, housing, banking and police services.

Take the typical ‘kirana shopkeeper’ as one of those who gravitated towards Hazare. The store owner has to deal on a daily basis with several live points of corruption: municipal services for establishment and house tax charges, city police and traffic police, income tax and VAT department, electricity department, weights and measures department, and Food and Adulteration department, etc.

A rickhshaw puller’s tryst with corruption makes sordid study. The Institute of Transportation and Development Policy estimates that over 70 lakh rickshaws ply daily in various Indian cities, of which six lakh are on Delhi’s roads. On an average, a rickshaw puller is said to pay Rs30 (15 to municipal authorities and 15 to police) in the NCR region daily and this works out to a bribe of about Rs1.8 crore being paid daily by poor rickshaw pullers totalling to about Rs600 crore in the capital region area alone. 

A 2008 Transparency International survey found that below poverty line households were worst hit by corruption: 58% faced corruption in PDS services, 46% at government hospitals, 28% in the education sector, 44% in getting an electricity connection, 42% in dealing with water supply department, and, above all,  77% in dealing with the police.

Entrepreneurs also encounter unending bureaucratic hurdles or potential points of corruption: from obtaining a director identification number to digital signature certificate of incorporation from the corporate affairs ministry to getting PAN and TAN identity, to registration with  plethora of agencies with the state and central authorities. That is why several small and medium enterprises find themselves defenceless in the face of corrupt demands and extortion.

Hazare has shown all of them a dream, but does his Lokpal offer the wherewithal to realise the dream of a corrupt free day-to-day existence? As he prepares for yet another battle, it is time he realised the complete futility of his fast and, more importantly, the limited utility of his belief that Lokpal would redeem India of all its ills.