According to the Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International (TI), a non-governmental organization that monitors and publicizes corporate and political corruption in international development, in 2010, India was ranked 87th out of the 178 countries. In the year 2010, we witnessed a massive exposure of the involvement of politicians, judicial officers and bureaucrats in the controversies such as 2-G spectrum scam, Commonwealth Games scam, Adarsh housing society scams, Cash for vote scam. But the investigations of these cases are increasing the workload of already overburdened investigative agencies. This culminated in a wide spread cry for a Lokpal bill.
The Lokpal Bill is a draft anti-corruption bill. If passed and made into law, the bill seeks to create an Ombudsman called Lokpal, an independent body like the Election Commission, which would have the power to prosecute politicians and bureaucrats without government permission. The bill was first introduced by Shanti Bhushan in 1968 and was passed in the 4th Lok Sabha in 1969. However, the bill didn't get through in the Rajya Sabha. Subsequent versions were re-introduced in the parliament in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and in 2008, but they never passed and is still pending.
In 2011, Anna Hazare a Gandhian as well as a 1965 Indo-Pak war veteran started a Satyagraha, a fast unto death in New Delhi demanding the passing of the bill. The movement attracted a large-scale media attention, and thousands of supporters. Following his four day hunger strike, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh promised that the Lokpal Bill would be introduced in the 2011 monsoon session of parliament.
As the attempts to merge the civil society group's suggestions into the bill failed, the government and the civil society group proposed their own versions of Lokpal bill. The bill proposed by the civil society have been prepared by the members of the associated activists movement - mainly comprising of N. Santosh Hegde a former justice of the Supreme Court of India and Lokayukta of Karnataka, former chief election commissioner J. M. Lyngdoh, Shanti Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court along with the members of the India Against Corruption movement. These civil society considers the government Lokpal bill to be weak and insufficient to stop corruption.
The major differences are
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Courtesy - The Hindu (dated 23/06/11)
The civil society members have been protesting against the toothless Lokpal bill, which will be able to punish only the small fishes, not the big goons. They have explained the short-comings of the government version of the bill. As the protests heated, the government, instead of solving the loopholes in the bill, they began scathing attacks on the civil group members, even forgetting the position they hold. The allegations made by the union government against the protests for Jan Lokpal terming them undemocratic and anarchic is naive from its part. Why can't the government present both the versions or the bills in the parliament, instead of blaming the activists for wanting the civil society gain to the upper hand over Parliament in lawmaking?
We have seen a lot of protests by political parties including some by the present ruling party, resulting in violence and destruction of public property. But Anna Hazare's protest didn't result in any such actions. Still, the government says fasting is not the way to protest. The actions of the government are denying the fundamental right of expression by creating an Emergency like situation. Arresting the activists who are raising their voices against corruption and putting them behind the bars, along with the grave criminals rings the death bell of a democracy. As an Indian I don't want to see the police force in my country being used as fascist blackshirts of Benitto Mussolini. May be they are wary of the "Jasmine Revolution". All I want to see is an end to corruption and I don't think the government's version of Lokpal bill has the edge to grill the billionaire political babus'.
(please enlarge the image)
Courtesy - The Hindu (dated 23/06/11)
The civil society members have been protesting against the toothless Lokpal bill, which will be able to punish only the small fishes, not the big goons. They have explained the short-comings of the government version of the bill. As the protests heated, the government, instead of solving the loopholes in the bill, they began scathing attacks on the civil group members, even forgetting the position they hold. The allegations made by the union government against the protests for Jan Lokpal terming them undemocratic and anarchic is naive from its part. Why can't the government present both the versions or the bills in the parliament, instead of blaming the activists for wanting the civil society gain to the upper hand over Parliament in lawmaking?
We have seen a lot of protests by political parties including some by the present ruling party, resulting in violence and destruction of public property. But Anna Hazare's protest didn't result in any such actions. Still, the government says fasting is not the way to protest. The actions of the government are denying the fundamental right of expression by creating an Emergency like situation. Arresting the activists who are raising their voices against corruption and putting them behind the bars, along with the grave criminals rings the death bell of a democracy. As an Indian I don't want to see the police force in my country being used as fascist blackshirts of Benitto Mussolini. May be they are wary of the "Jasmine Revolution". All I want to see is an end to corruption and I don't think the government's version of Lokpal bill has the edge to grill the billionaire political babus'.
