The nationwide support for Anna Hazare

No one had anticipated the extent of country wide support for Anna Hazare and his crusade against corruption. Within hours of the news of his arrest breaking on the networks, spontaneous protests broke out all over the country including Goa leaving the government open mouthed at the national demonstration.

When television channels brought news of his arrest at 7.30 am in Delhi, there was outrage and anger at the government’s high handedness even amongst people who had reservations on his method of protest. And the government once again revealed its political immaturity in handling the campaign.

Anna in his address to the nation on Monday had urged his supporters not to resort to violence. "If you take to violence, it will take this government minutes to crush you," he had said. As Anna was whisked away by the police, Delhi rediscovered Gandhigiri when the protestors shunned from raining the police with their favourite weapon- the stone.

Instead chants of “Bharat Mata ki Jai” rang through the air embodied the spirit of the new age Indian protestor. The Delhi police too had a tough task because they had to tackle irate protestors all over the city instead of at the single place of arrest.

Far away from the fast-moving developments in Delhi, people from all walks of life took to the streets spontaneously, in rain and shine, not just in the metros but even in smaller towns. Everywhere, the protesters denounced the government and chanted slogans demanding a stronger Lokpal Bill.

The fact that Anna had been lodged in Tihar's Jail, the same building in which CWG scam accused Suresh Kalmadi is also lodged, seemed to many an insult to injury. "Democracy had been murdered," was the common refrain across the country, as protesters swelled in numbers. Candlelight processions were taken out in the evening in several metros.

The government has been caught with its back against the wall and there seems to be nobody bold enough to take a decision. The Prime Minister has become a mute spectator and has shunned the press and media. And as expected the Congress High Command which emerges every time credit is to be taken for achievements is conspicuous by its absence.

Party spokespersons are making ribald statements and then realizing that they have put their foot in their mouths are quietly withdrawing from the scene. The only alternative left with the Congress is to resign en-mass and call for reelections or accept Anna Hazare’s version of the Lokpal Bill.

The Anna Hazare Ultimatum

Anna Hazare has been detained from an apartment that he was staying in today morning after police reportedly failed to persuade him to call off his fast to defy prohibitory orders and stage a protest at Jai Prakash Narain Park in Delhi.

The Parliament witnessed uproarious scenes shortly after it assembled for the ongoing monsoon session over the arrest. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned amid noisy scenes and arguments between the opposition and treasury benches.

The Congress seems to be totally at sea when it comes to dealing with Anna Hazare on corruption. They don’t seem to realize that situation like these have to be dealt with good political wisdom. The party has made three lawyers – P. Chidambaran, Kapil Sibal and Manish Tiwari, in charge of handling the Hazare team.

They probably are trying to match the father-son duo lawyer team in the Hazare team. Whoever made the decision to unleash the three on Hazare before he is to begin his fast has obviously not been in touch with the ground realities.

First, they try to argue that the civil society is trying to subvert the parliamentary democracy. They don’t realize that the common man is disenchanted with their own political representatives. When this method failed, they presented their own draft of the bill, which the Hazare team called it the Jokepal Bill.

When even this did not work, the next step was vengeful and naïve. They thought of discrediting Anna Hazare himself. . Manish Tewari went to town by digging out an old report of a Commission to prove Anna as corrupt. Then Sibal joined to question the source of funding of Anna's movement. Chidambaram added that Anna's fast would be forcibly ended.

When they failed to get any reactions on this from the newspapers, they have now detained Anna from entering J P Park. What the Congress is unable to grasp is that the issue is now not “their bill and our bill” but the whole issue of corruption itself. The Congress is not able to convince the civic society that they are against corruption.

The government is not realising that Anna is articulating the emotion of distress of the people in response to rampant corruption. The Congress desperately needs someone in authority who is able to think politically. And Prime Minister Manmohan Singh definitely is not that man.

The ageing political scenario of India

The average age of the cabinet ministers in the Manmohan Singh government is 65 years of which 14 ministers including the Prime Minister are over 70 years of age. Just one minister is in the 40s while the average age of the council of ministers is 60 years.

Contrast this with the Prime Minister of Great Britain who is 45 years old, and the President of the United States of America is 50 years. The three youngest ministers of state in the Manmohan Singh government are under 35 years and all three of them are the children of influential politicians.

Rahul Gandhi at the age of 41 years does not want to take up any ministerial position in the government as he feels he is too young and not ready to take the responsibility yet.

Unfortunately, the youngsters in Indian politics have little to offer to the government except their lineage. Most of them are the sons and daughters of politicians who see electoral politics as extension of their fiefdoms. They rarely speak in parliament and have never been seen taking up social issues.

The only thing they seem to be aware of are their exaggerated sense of entitlement attending well-orchestrated meetings and giving speeches which are tutored. In case they do speak out spontaneously, it is always to retract back their statements as they have no independent stand on contentious issues.

The youth outfits of political parties like Youth Congress of the Congress party and the Yuva Morcha of the BJP have turned out to be event managers organizing events around the country with no set agenda. Youth party elections have turned nurseries for introducing children and spouses of elected politicians.

Their meetings and seminars don’t espouse ideas but turn out to be well organized parades and discussions that have little to do with youth concerns. There is no cut and thrust of new ideas that can shape the minds of a new India.

Guilty till proven innocent

Television news channels have now turned court rooms with fish market cacophony ambiance at prime time, where the politicians are “tried” before a jury of prominent press persons. The principle of jurisprudence where an accused is presumed innocent till proven guilty has now been turned on its head.

The news anchor who presides over this “discussion” has turned judge and television has turned into a masala movie ambiance court where perception matters more than legal niceties.

Politicians and heavy weights like A Raja and Suresh Kalmadi have been deemed guilty by these television courts even before charge sheets have been filed. In the case of A Raja, there was suspicion of him deliberately misusing the telecom ministry for personal benefit, while in case of Kalmadi, there was suspicion that he had manipulated games contracts.

In normal circumstances, with the low moral standards of our politicians, these would never have resigned from their posts and offices. The present political morality is that even prima facie evidence of their involvement in illegal activities is not enough; a minister will resign only when he or she is convicted by a court of law.

Since the process of prosecution and conviction is long and cumbersome, these politicians would have continued in their ministerial office even as the cases drag in the courts of law for years. And they take recourse in saying “let the law take its course and prove me guilty”.

It is this growing frustration in the public minds that have provided fodder for television news channels to hold their daily courts at prime time, and thus generate high TRPs. The tardy judicial process has aptly created an environment of playing accuser, judge and prosecutor.

The result is that resignations have been forced on such tainted politicians by the courts of television by creating sufficient amount of cacophony.

There was a time when the merest whiff of a scandal was considered sufficient for a minister to resign even when there was no evidence to implicate them. Those times are gone and we are now in times of a Shibu Soren who returns back to the union cabinet immediately after securing a bail in a murder case or a Mayawati who continues to be the UP Chief Minister even while facing a disproportionate assets case in the Supreme Court.

And so would Kalamadi and Raja have continued in office it weren’t for the television courts. The latest accused on trial in the television court is Sheila Dixit, the Chief Minister of Delhi.

We have to wait and see how long the judges of television continue with the cacophony!

Unreasonable demands by tribal leaders

 A morcha was held under the banner of United Tribal Associations Alliance at Panaji yesterday. It culminated at Azad Maidan where several tribal leaders spoke before a crowd of nearly four thousand people. This meeting was held, reportedly, to protest against the arrest of BJP MLAs Mr. Vasudev Gaonkar of Sanguem and Ramesh Tawadkar of Poinginim, and former MLA Mr. Prakash Velip. They had been reportedly arrested by the Crime Branch for leading a protest outside its office in Dona Paula.

The tribal leaders in this meeting at Panaji yesterday also demanded from the government, a ban on sale of scheduled tribe land, notification of tribal areas and scheduled land for upliftment of the scheduled tribe community. They also wanted simplification of procedure for issue of the caste certificate.

The May 25 “rasta rook” agitation which turned violent, was initially held to demand for reservation in government jobs. This spate of agitations and demonstrations have been a regular feature with the tribal associations. It started off with the demand for funds ear marked for scheduled tribe areas which the government in the past have used for other projects.

The government subsequently acceded to this demand and earmarked Rs. 10 crore for the development of scheduled tribe welfare. Then came the demand for setting up of Scheduled Tribe Commission, which again the government acceded to.

The tribal leaders felt that the Rs.10 crore budget was not sufficient, and hence led a morcha to the Crime Branch Police Station at Dona Paula, where they were arrested.

It is a sorry state of affairs in the State of Goa that the government acts only when morchas are held. And the tribal leaders are resorting to morchas at the drop of a hat.

We get the feeling that the tribal leaders don’t want their problems resolved.

When they demanded for a tribal commission, they got it. When they demanded money for development, they got it.

And now, at the end of their wits, they are demanding release of their leaders arrested for the Balli violence, and apparently they are not going to get it.

So more vociferous is the demand.

Tomorrow, if by chance, they do get released, then we can expect one more morcha with several more unreasonable demands.

The government must put its foot down and stop tolerating all this. If the tribals have any genuine grievances, they must approach the government through the proper channel via the State Tribal Commission.

Let the Lokpal Bill get through

The Government’s decision to go ahead with the Lokpal Bill and Anna Hazare’s threat to go ahead with his fast has generated much heat in the media. While one section supports Anna Hazare (on the distant hope that this is what people want) another section approves the government decision with the faint hope that at least the Bill will finally go through (any anamolies can be rectified later as amendments).

We need to examine at least the good things of the Government version of the Lokpal Bill before deciding whether we don’t want this version. The most undesired stand by Anna Hazare is the “all or nothing” approach taken by his team. They want the total version of the bill drafted by them or nothing at all. They are not willing to accept any of the suggestions put by the government.

The stand taken by the Hazare team that the Lokpal must be an authority in itself. It wants the Lokpal an all-powerful body. In the governments version, the Judiciary has been left out. The Lokpal needs supervision and only the Judiciary can do it; for this it has to be left out within its own purview. This is one point that the Hazare team will not find any support.

The governments version of the Lokpal Bill does not need anyone’s permission in pursuing corruption against politicians and bureaucrats. In other Acts, the permission of the Speaker in case of politicians and the Government in case of senior bureaucrats, is required, which has been dispensed with.

The governments version of the Lokpal Bill also lays down the procedure for selection of the Institution of the Lokpal fairly well. The Chairman of the Lokpal has to be a serving or retires Judge of the Supreme Court, and of the eight members, four are from the Judiciary. Because of this clause, there will be more faith in the functioning of the Lokpal.

The government’s version of the Lokpal Bill also stresses more on the highest posts of the bureaucracy as well. There is no scope of the higher officers to shift the blame on the juniors. Because of this, we need to support the governments version of the bill.

Finally, the Anna Hazare team is peeved because the serving Prime Minister is not included in the Bill. This problem can be handled differently. In case the Prime Minister is involved in any case of corruption while in office, it may be on account of any portfolio that he handles. In such cases, there is no bar on tackling the same on the Minister of that portfolio.

We must remember that the aim of the Lokpal Bill is to remove corruption at the highest levels. The lower rung of the government officers are corrupt because they get protection from the top; if the top themselves are so vulnerable, there is no scope for corruption at the bottom.

The CAG erred in making public its findings

The auditor of a company cannot decide on the policies the management ought to follow. This is common sense. It is the management that decide what risks the company is to take to progress. Not the auditor. And in case there are decisions taken which have resulted in losses, it is the duty of the auditor to point out these. These observations by the auditor are taken as feedback for further improvement, and not as fodder for pointing fingers and pulling down the management.

A good auditor always refrains from sensationalism. He does not go to the press with his findings. He does not call a general body meeting to announce his findings. He places his findings before the Board of Directors, and they decide on action to be taken in the matter, if at it is necessary. It is not binding on them to punish anyone on these findings.

Yet, in our country, we find the CAG doing just that. It immediately called a press conference to announce its findings. And the press, which thrives on sensationalism, immediately pounced on the report and crucified publicly every person named in the report without verifying the veracity of the report. It is insane. No where in the world does an auditor hold a press conference.

In normal circumstances, in a company if the management has taken a risk, the Board never comes in the way of its thinking; in fact it expects more of it. At the same time, it does not ignore the auditors report. If the auditors do point out any fraud or corruption charges, it may even sack the management.

The CAG has called a press conference to reveal its findings on the Commonwealth Games. It has named the Chief Minister of New Delhi as well as the Prime Minsiter’s Office as the culprit in addition to Suresh Kalmadi for taking decisions during the organization of the Games.

In this report, the CAG has accused the Chief Minister of Delhi of spending nearly Rs 100 crores on Delhi’s beautification. The accusation implies that this money should not have been spent. There is no hint of any corruption in this observation. The CAG has merely pointed out that this is a “wastage of public funds”.

If one were to go by the CAG’s advice (assuming the CAG had given it before the spends were incurred), then Delhi may have looked like a third world city during the Games and the foreign sportsperson who attended the Games would take home the image of a third world country.