How effective would be the outcome of the crusade of Anna Hazare against Corruption in the long run?

I was also the one who was following the crusade of Anna Hazare very emotionally and had planned to visit Jantar Mantar, the Gandhian’s campaigning site on Saturday but it ended the same morning. I was also the one who shared numerous links on Facebook and supported this crusade quite aggressively. 

But when the emotional high has subsided and things are cruising along in a normal way and nobody’s life is staked due to fast, I gave it a thought, a deep thought. I don’t know whether I am wrong, fishing out negative things, or trying to emerge different from others but on the grounds that I consider myself a responsible citizen of my country and love my nation the same way my neighbor loves, reacted the same way all of us reacted when India won the World Cup, I should give a due consideration to all the agendas that are there to effect my country. 

I was overwhelmed by the news of normal citizens joining the crusade, children and old alike. The emotional statements of people joining the crusade choked my throat. I was wholeheartedly supporting Anna for what he was doing and feeling my chest swelled on the unity shown by the whole nation, in spite of my personal problems that I was going through.

But, I would like to post some questions to my fellow citizens including myself. They are:-

1.      First and foremost, have we gone through the actual Lokpal Bill and the one proposed by Anna Hazare?
2.    Why only two low rung politicians, Uma Bharti and O P Chawtala came forward to meet Anna when we all know that opposition never leaves such opportunity to pull down the Govt.?
3.   How Anna Hazare did became such a big celebrity overnight when we hardly noticed his meeting with the PM in March?
4.    Why do we treat the politicians and bureaucrats as outcasts or Asuras(devil)?

I will try to answer the above questions according to my understanding of the issue. 

1.  Yes, I have gone through both the documents briefly as it was available on the internet and frankly speaking I am not a lawyer or know Law in detail to understand it accurately but it was good that the people with Anna were taking this effort to make the people understand what they are fighting for. There are some clauses in the proposed Lokpal Bill which I found to be very difficult to implement practically but I would not like to comment on those citing my limited knowledge on the subject.
2.  The answer to the second question is that no doubt politicians are the most opportunist lot but they will never like to play a second fiddle in any agitation which could have been the case here and they also refrained themselves from giving any kind of strong statement because of the high emotional outburst of the people of India.
3.  This question came into my mind when I learnt about another crusader in Manipur, Irom Chano Sharmila who has been on fast unto death demanding the Government of India to withdraw the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, also otherwise known as AFSPA, from Manipur and other areas of India's north east. It was astonishing to learn that she is on fast since Nov 4, 2000 and is under arrest and forcibly kept alive by police through nasogastric intubation. What happened? Nobody marketed her, and is her agitation wrong? Perhaps we don’t consider the problem of Manipur as our own problem. Read the full history here Irom Chanu Sharmila. It means that India Against Corruption crusade has wittingly played with the emotions of the people of India. The PR of this agitation was impeccable.  
4.  The last question that I have put across comes with the tradition that we follow in India where Ajmal Kasab is also given a chance to prove his innocence, so why not our politicians and bureaucrats. Someone or the other hails from our own family or near relation. Do we ever outcast them even when it comes to our knowledge that the money he/she brings is through some unfair means? We all advise and encourage any newly selected IAS from our family to opt for a region with scope for making money, not with the scope of doing some outstanding work. These days nobody joins politics or opts for civil services to serve the nation and society but to taste - power and money. So before taking to streets against the corrupt politicians we should look into our own home and vicinity and outcast those who are corrupt. 

Hope my answers will satisfy the readers but then also I am open for comments and fresh view points. Now I will share with you all the general doubts that have crept up in my mind regarding the effectiveness of the Lokpal Bill when passed. It is quite early to say anything because a lot has to be discussed and it’s far away from being finalized yet, seeing the way Govt of India functions.

The base of the Lokpal Bill as Anna Hazare has been quoting since the beginning is to make it as a deterrent for the corrupt. 

Most of us would agree to the fact that our constitution is one of the best in the world as it was the amalgamation of the best existing at that time by the wisest of people around. We have laws for everything in the book and quite elaborately illustrated but then also law breakers and corruption are at a rampage. There are so many different bodies, agencies, levels with vested powers to check all the wrong doings that are likely to happen in the normal running of a country but then also it has hardly made any difference but instead I would say, it has brought more corruption in the pool which was already murky.

So in that case will one more Law under the exercise of one more body with immense powers make the difference that all the other efforts in this direction could not do? Nobody is born corrupt. It’s under certain conditions that one turns corrupt. What are those conditions? It’s the power that gives a human being a feeling of being invincible and that in turn makes him corrupt. 

 

One fine day I was moving through the bureaucratic area of Central Delhi when suddenly barricades were drawn by the police and the traffic was stopped where it was from all the sides and a convoy passed as we waited impatiently to start again for our respective destinations. I didn’t know whose convoy was that but just a thought came to my mind it is this man for which thousands of people are made stranded on the road and there was a man lying by the side of the road at the last traffic signal I crossed. What was the difference between the two? The power was the difference. 

Power of any magnitude can bring the feeling of self importance as compared to others. A peon at the door of an IAS officer also uses his power to allow only the chosen ones to enter the chamber. This is the intoxication of power. It is very overwhelming. A police constable stops any vehicle on Indian roads and asks for papers and we all with due respect draw out all the papers to show them without knowing the fact that a constable doesn’t have this power without a sub-inspector present at the scene. This is the effect of power. 

So, my dear countrymen will the Jan Lokpal Bill check all these with some extra ordinary powers to some chosen ones further who would not be elected but appointed?

Today we all have faith on Anna Hazare like we had faith on Mahatma Gandhi at the time of our independence. But people who will come after him would not be Mahatmas. Will they not take advantage of these immense powers to their own benefit? 

I am no lawyer or lawmaker but I have a sense of right and wrong, cause and effect and I dearly believe that prevention is better than cure or in other words it’s easier to cut the tree from its root rather than trimming its branches to check its growth. Again, it is the common mistake that we all do without realizing about running after the effects rather than controlling the cause.

I don’t have any concrete suggestions that I can make to add or subtract from the clauses of the Jan Lokpal Bill but evoke a thought among my fellow citizens about the things we can do. 

1.  We should always cast our vote no matter what and don’t see politics as untouchable.
2.  We should check and try to be at least corruption free in our field of play.
3.  We should all come up together against any wrong doings around us.
4. We should strictly stand against any corruption no matter how close is the person involved.

And, I hope like all my countrymen that this Jan Lokpal Bill will bring some miraculous transformation of our country.