LOKPAL

The post of Lokpal was envisaged, a person who will listen the  anti corruption complains against polity and officers of various ranks, but our politicians saw to  it that this type of system is never implemented. There were many activists who agitated for Lokpal bill , but in vain. Few states have Lokpal type system, but of little use. Then in the early part of this decade there was wide protests in the country for enacting law for Lokpal.

The Jan Lokpal Bill

The initiator of this movement was Anna Hazare, who is activist from Ralegaon Sidhi in Maharashtra. He became very famous when he started his crusade against corruption in the interior of Maharashtra, then he paved the way for RTI(Right To Information) act. He was fed up with corruption in govt circles and he thought the country must have very strong anti corruption LOKPAL(Ombudsman) and all govt servants , Councillars, MLAs, MPs , CMs, Ministers and PM should be included in this act, but in the Govt circles no body was willing to discuss  this matter as it directly affected them.

In 2011, Anna circulated a draft Jan Lokpal Bill, which was drafted by N Santosh Hegde a former SC Judge and Karnataka Lokayukta, Prashant Bhushan & Arvind Kejriwal. This draft included stringent provisions  and gave wider power to Lokpal, and this bill bill even included PM in Lokpal ambit.

Anna Hazare requested PM Manmohan Singh to look into their draft Lokpal bill, after some time PM rejected the same. Then Anna began his indefinite fast from 5 April 2011 at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. This movement attracted the attention of media and lakhs of supporters and social activist like Medha Patkar, Kiran Bedi, and spiritual leaders like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Baba Ramdev, Swami Agnivesh. Anna did not allow any Politician to sit on dias.On 8 Apr 2011, Govt accepted the movement’s demand to form a joint committee. The members of the said committee were Pranab Mukherji, P Chidambaram, Verrappa Molly, Kapil Sibal and Salman Khursheed from govt side and Anna Hazare, N Santosh Hegde, Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal.

During the meeting of drafting the bill the govt proposed the exclusion of PM and higher judiciary and acts of MPs from the ambit of bill, which was opposed by civil society team. Anna and his team boycotted the next meeting of the committee to protest against the forcible eviction of Baba Ramdev and his team from Ramlila ground, while they were on hunger strike against the issue of Black money. Then Civil Society members informed to Pranab Mukherji that they will attend the future meeting only if they are telecast live.

Anna said that if the bill is not passed in proper format, he would call nation wide agitation. Again on 28 July 2012, Anna threatened to go on fast unto death on this bill issue and made a statement that country future is not safe with this govt and main opposition party BJP and he will campaign against them in coming elections.

On 28 July 2011, Cabinet approved the draft Lokpal Bill whick kept PM, Judiciary and lower bureaucracy out of this bill. The Civil Society team termed this bill as Cruel  Joke and Anna wrote to PM saying that he will go to indefinite hunger strike from 16 Aug 2011 at Jantar Mantar, if the govt introduce this bill in Parliament without incorporating the points raised by them. Anna said govt is lying on all front, if govt is serious in fighting corruption, why it is not bringing CBI and govt employees under Lokpal Bill.

Anna was arrested on 16 Aug 2011, four hours before he was to start his hunger strike. Later in afternoon he refused bail and was transferred to Tihar Jail. More than 1000 of his protesting supporters were detained in Delhi. After 4 hours in detention in Tihar jail , but he refused to leave the jail. On 20 Aug 2011 he left Tihar Jai lafter govt gave him permission to fast at Ramlila ground. Lakhs of people came to Ramlila ground to show their support to Anna. In the mean time Congress confirmed that Maharashtra Additional Chief Secretary(Home) Umesh Chandra Sarangi was acting as mediator between Govt and Anna’s team. Anna ended his fast after Lokpal Bill was passed in Loksabha unanimously. He was admitted to Medanta Medicity in Gurgaon for post fast .

Even this bill which was passed in Parliament never became operative, that is how the UPA 2 govt worked.

After the new NDA govt took over  their priorities apparently were quite different, and even they  did not push for introduction of this bill once again. Presently no one knows when Lokpal Bill will be reintroduced, and looking at the present political scenario, it does not seem likely in the near future also.

Yesterday I wrote about the about the results for the assembly elections in 5 states. It seems now the the time has come for the BJP’s WAKEUP CALL.

Waiting for your feed back/views/comments.

Anil Malik

Mumbai,India

11th Dec 2018