We all owe Anna Hazare a debt of gratitude for dedicating his life to the service of the people and battling for accountability and transparency in governance. Right now millions of people look to him for inspiration and guidance. We are all sick of mismanagement, venality and the lack of accountability that have become the hallmarks not only of our institutions of governance but also of many of our educational, cultural, religious and a host of other institutions including many of our NGOs who have in recent years started calling themselves “civil society” institutions because that is the term made fashionable by international donor agencies.
Anna is fortunate that the support base of the anti-corruption movement covers a very large spectrum of people, organizations and individuals. From small shopkeepers to IT honchos, film stars, retired bureaucrats and ordinary housewives, they are all out on the streets demanding accountable governance and clean polity. However, the main support base and mobilization effort come from a diverse range of religious and spiritual gurus like Sri Sri Ravishankar and Baba Ramdev who command larger and more committed followings than most of our political parties.
I feel perturbed by the disdain with which some of the movement leaders and followers treated elected representatives, MPs, MLAs who came to express support to the movement. I am the last person to defend the indefensible conduct of many of our politicians and elected representatives. As a group, they have indeed failed us badly. But so have many others—the judiciary, the police, the bureaucracy, as well as many of our “religio-spiritual” leaders. Many of these worthies are no less corrupt and venal than the worst of our politicians. No politician can get away with corruption and crime without the active collaboration of the bureaucracy, police and the judiciary.
Let us also remember that some of the best and most upright leaders we have witnessed have all been members of political parties. Mahatma Gandhi, Jayprakash Narayan, Lokmanya tilak, Baba Sahib Ambedkar—all fought elections. Today, the man credited with bringing about the most progressive changes in Bihar is the state’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The role he is playing for his state is no less historic than Anna’s role. Baba Ramdev himself heads a political party and yet he has been accepted as a leading player in the movement.
Those of us who claim to draw inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi cannot afford to be so self-righteous and declare ourselves to be the epitomes of purity and exclude even those elected representatives who desire to make common cause with this campaign. The arrogance of “tyag” is no less dangerous and corrosive than the arrogance that comes with money and political power. If the movement is ready to welcome film stars and other celebrities who may well be evading taxes and bypassing laws for personal benefit, why single out elected representatives especially when they come to make common cause with the movement?
We would do well to remember that people like us are self-appointed representatives of “civil society.” There are times the self-appointed representatives are able to give vent to popular sentiment much more effectively than elected representatives. However, at many points, such leaders, including the epochal ones like Mahatma Gandhi are ignored or even ridiculed by society. Does it mean at those times they lose the right to raise public issues?
The groundswell of support for those who are leading the current movement very ably should not undermine the importance of those who actually go to seek the mandate of the voters and are willing to accept rejection. They can even be booted out through elections whereas we self-appointed representatives can’t be voted out at those times when we exceed our brief.
Elected representatives are an integral and quintessential part of democracy, however flawed it may be. To tar, all politicians with a black brush are to declare a war on democracy. There are as many or as few good politicians as there are NGOs or judges. Our democracy is without a doubt highly flawed and makes it difficult for honest people to survive in electoral politics. Our politicians are as many victims of the money and muscle power dominated the electoral system as they are its beneficiaries. The disdain for politicians can easily translate into disdain for democracy itself. By declaring that politicians cannot even come and express support to the anti-corruption movement from Anna Hazare’s platform because they are tainted, is to treat our elected representatives as untouchables.
Corruption is no more confined to politicians and bureaucracy. It has percolated down deep into the very vitals of society. Our panchayats are also hotbeds of corruption. Our citizens—rich and poor alike—have accepted corruption as a way of life. It is our complicity and apathy as citizens that have allowed money and muscle power to hijack the system for their personal profit. We as citizens are complicit in letting thugs come to power. Many of those who are out on the streets shouting against corrupt politicians could well be evading taxes or violating building and other laws, selling adulterated goods and manipulating the system for personal benefit. Just as that does not undermine their urge for a clean polity, so also politicians currently using corrupt means to win elections could well be like us yearning for a more dignified entry into electoral politics.
The Lokpal Bill has already invited a good deal of well-meaning criticism from those who share Anna’s hatred of corruption but have alternative strategies to suggest. Some of this criticism is as well-meaning as Anna’s demands. Merely making the Lokpal a supra government body and giving it full powers to make its own appointments will not ensure that the institution becomes worthy of the trust reposed in it. For example, the power to appoint Supreme Court and High Court judges were taken away from the Government and entrusted to the collegiums of Supreme Court judges. That has not stopped some of the most venal and corrupt in the judiciary from rising to the very top, including the office of the Chief Justice of India.
The legitimate concerns of all sections of society including farmers, businessmen, politicians, professionals, must be taken on board if we want to create a corruption-free, crime-free India where people don’t have to resort to bribery string-pulling and subversion of laws in order carry out any entrepreneurial activity – whether as street vendors, farmers, petty shopkeepers or as industrialists.
It is equally important to recognize that the present scope of the Bill is so overarching that it could collapse under the weight of its own gigantic ambition. Anna is well aware that the existing machinery of governance is not just corrupt, it is also dysfunctional. We need far-reaching administrative, judicial, police and electoral reforms, including in its recruitment policies, if the Lokpal is to become an effective instrument of vigilance and redressal.
For example, if our municipal offices, police stations, public hospitals and courts are not equipped with the appropriately skilled and motivated personnel, the right kind of incentives and resources with mechanisms of accountability inbuilt into their day to day functioning, there is no way that a Lokpal or state Lokayuktas alone can use their extraordinary powers as magic wands to get the system to work well. Some of the spadework has already been done. But the blueprint prepared by the Administrative Reforms Commission for wide spectrum reforms in every sector has been gathering dust for years. We need to bring that reform agenda on the table along with the Lokpal Bill in order to restore the health of our institutions of governance. Otherwise, the Lokpal will either collapse under the tsunami of complaints that will sweep it off its feet or become yet another bureaucratic dead weight on the existing rotten system.