Lokpal tussle is about power, not corruption

The Lokpal is meant to be a legislation to combat corruption. In the last eight months — from April when Anna Hazare held his first fast-unto-death to December when he will go on a three-day fast — it has become a battle between Hazare against the Congress-led UPA government, Hazare and his friends against the Congress, and for a few moments a clash between Hazare and prime minister Manmohan Singh, Hazare and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. On a larger social scale, it is a battle between classes represented by Hazare and associates and castes represented Hindi heartland political parties.

It has become a fight between a civil society group and the government and the Congress party. The other opposition parties did not want alienate or antagonise the Hazare group. So, they quietly tip-toed their way on to the Hazare platform and banded themselves against the Congress. It has become a strategic imperative for the opposition parties to be seen as endorsing Hazare.

Exceptions like Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rahstriya Janata Dal, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party reveal the social fissure between the middle and lower castes and the middle and lower-middle classes. Castes cannot be easily collapsed into classes. It would seem that it is the upper castes that have been transformed into classes, and this transformation has not taken place with regard to the other castes. In terms of sheer numbers, castes outflank classes. It will not be long before there will be sufficient numbers of middle and lower-middle classes among Yadavs, Dalits and Muslims who will then take over the baton for the fight against corruption. For these traditional social groups, political participation and political power is the initial break from the choking caste and community identities. 

The debate and discussions, the different versions of the Lokpal bill, the report of the parliamentary standing committee report have all focused on what the Lokpal’s power should be, who should come under it and who should not. It is not any more about the malady — corruption — anymore. It is about the extent of power that the Lokpal can exercise. Of course, the Hazare group can argue that greater powers for the Lokpal will be more effective in curbing corruption. The government and politicians will argue that it will not be effective enough.

Without realising it, Hazare and associates have been sucked into the debate over the Lokpal’s powers, which is the crux of all real politics. The idea of public good being the essence of politics has taken a backseat, much to the delight of the professional politicians.

The campaign against Congress is not that it is not standing up against corruption as such, but that it is not giving enough powers to the Lokpal. Political parties are quite happy with the turn that the debate has taken. There is less talk about the venality of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats and more talk about the powers that politicians and bureaucrats should wield.

Surprisingly, the Lokpal battle has not really brought out a better diagnosis of corruption, what forms it takes and how widespread it is. Though anecdotal evidence suggests that officials have been quite wary of taking bribes this year, there is not much to show that the vexed and angry middle classes have stopped paying bribes to get their work done. There is not much to show that the enthusiastic participants of the Hazare-inspired demonstrations have exposed cases of corruption in their daily interaction with officialdom.

Nor have economists and sociologists and political scientists come up with a more detailed picture of the bases of corruption and how it works despite the fact that municipal laws are violated in the construction of hospitals, roads and airports, or public services are vitiated in the public distribution system and in schools and universities. The Lokpal campaign has not really made us more aware of the disease of corruption, nor has it made us more determined not to be a part of the extortion system.

Lalu can be pleasingly eloquent, Hazare compellingly earnest. But the two are speaking the language of political power and not of general good. The cheerleaders on both sides too are taken in by the histrionics rather than by the issue at stake, which is corruption. The Congress silently believes that corruption is not an issue in Indian politics and its cynicism is confirmed by the terms of the Lokpal debate unfolding in and outside parliament.

Meanwhile, common people are being literally trampled down by the corruption of those in power. But people show their anger at the time of elections. They throw out corrupt politicians in power, something politicians keep forgetting. That is why people in general are not too taken up by the Hazare crusade.