Lokpal – Will it become a Frankenstein monster and haunt congress?

All of us sudden we have an old man capturing imagination of the country as a Gandhian who fights corrupt elements in government. And it seems that he reasoned it after a long time that only a powerful and independent Lokpal is a panacea to kill the monster of corruption. In first place even if it is an ambitious/optimistic project, it is also a wishful thinking of a person whose probity is unquestionable. It’s agreed that we have been debating this for the past 40 years and for some reason or the other the parliament was unsuccessful to make this a reality. I am neither against nor for Lokpal bill, because unless individual minds are reformed no bill can help improve the situation. Recently I have heard in a television debate that in India we have lakhs of laws and statutes, you name anything we have a statue and a law for that purpose. I always found it unrealistic to cover everything under sun within the ambit of Lokpal. I am sure as there will be a lots of amendments to the Lokpal bill (either it can be government version or Annaji’s version) once it is approved by parliament. The premise for this argument is in India we are strong in drafting laws but not in enforcing them. On the other we are really good at selective application of laws. For example a common citizen enters a police station for a complaint it is not necessary that his complaint will be registered. The comman man is a victim of systematic apathy which is a product of Indian political system.

Anna Hazare existed even before this Lokpal spectacle and his fight against corrupt congress politicians in Maharashtra is notable. The party in power known for its miscalculations always considered Anna Hazare as a non-issue, but not after the collective strength shown on streets. Government suddenly started speaking like a drunken man as it could not handle the situation, firstly it used the notorious loose cannon Digvijay Singh who said that RSS is behind all this and Anna is a mask. Now the begging question “is RSS not eligible to fight corruption” after all they are the true nationalists. Then the individual members of team Anna are targeted. After Anna’s 10+ days of protest the government thought it has no other way but concede and gave the written confirmation that Lokpal will be tabled in the winter session. Anna was always skeptical about congress’s move because given a chance they were ready to backtrack. After all the hue and cry the debate narrowed to three points which in the recent days been debated in every television and print media, i.e., inclusion of prime minister, lower bureaucracy and citizen’s charter under Lokpal. Congress is more worried about the inclusion of prime minister. Why? That will be a million dollar question. And the answer possibly could be it is because of Raul Vinci alias Rahul Gandhi (which is also asserted by Anna himself). Sonia Gandhi wants her son to succeed the PM post because the world knows that current PM is not MMS but SG and MMS is only a mask of Antonio alias Sonia Gandhi. She thinks that bringing PM under Lokpal might hinder future PM’s routine job, the job which congress is doing since bofors or since Nehru joined Congress, I am also talking about partition.

I think the government might have decided to agree for the time being what Anna Inc says and for any future troubles they would go by amending the very bill to their benefit. This is a sure possibility; in that case will Anna go to streets every time the government intends to bend the law? I too know that people can reject the government in elections but the problem is they do not happen frequently, by that time the damage is already done. I don’t know if this is the reason why he said his next battle would be for “right to reject”. Already we are starting to hear disgruntled voices that are feared by this. Any way the feasibility of right to reject still needs to be debated. I know this great man will have a plan for sure once the Lokpal is enacted to deal with emerging situations. Once approved this will be another European product for India. As we know we have borrowed all the current day institutions from Europe and Lokpal is another such institution and I am hopeful that it will serve Indian interests. Congress is really worried that Lokpal might become its Frankenstein monster.