Why should you support Anna Hazare and a strong Lok Pal bill?

This is a burning issue many Indians are aware of (provided they follow Indian news). Most of us support Anna Hazare either because we know the facts behind the need for a strong Lok Pal (will be a very less percentage in my opinion) and others simply support because they don’t have faith in the current government’s version of Lok Pal (will be the majority). There is a third category of people who do not support Anna Hazare’s movement because they think only formally elected MPs and Ministers have the right to constitute a new law in the country.

This article is for the second category of people I have mentioned above – who want to support Anna Hazare but don’t know why! These are the top 5 reasons due to which I strongly believe that we all should support Anna Hazare’s movement for a strong Lok Pal (not necessarily all the points in their version though).

1)      Corruption is the root cause of most problems in India today

If you have lived in India for few years and visited government offices, you must be familiar with the way things work in most government offices. It can be as small as getting your address changed in your ration card to as big as getting a frequency range in the spectrum as a mobile operator, money does many things in India. This practice is so deep rooted in our society that even the citizens have become corrupt – a classic example is registering your property for a lower value to avoid paying stamp duty by paying bribe to the registrar to allow it. We do have a Prevention of Corruption act (1988) but nothing has changed drastically. As per the statistics from www.ipaidabribe.com, the total value of bribe reported so far in the site is Rs. 296,995,425. Remember, this is only from those who reported it and reported it in this website. The actual value of bribe paid in my view should be multiple folds of this amount. Even worse, the poor condition of infrastructure development and public services in India can be and should be attributed only to corruption and embezzlement by bureaucrats and politicians.             This clearly indicates the ineffectiveness of Prevention of Corruption Act and a need for a stronger law with severe punishment and penalties for those who are convicted of corruption.

2)      Other countries have set a working example through a strong ombudsman

This point in time, I should draw the example of how corruption was so well handled through the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in Hong Kong. Hong Kong was even more corrupt than India. But today if you talk to those who are from Hong Kong you would hear totally different stories. This was possible through a strong independent body with sufficient powers to investigate corruption and punish those who are corrupt working with a clearly defined SLA. You can get to know about the great story of Hong Kong from here.

3)      The Government’s version of Lok Pal is too weak to say the least

Intentionally or unintentionally, most likely intentionally, the Lok Pal bill tabled by government on 4^th Aug 2011 is simply too weak. You can see the complete draft of the UPA government from here. I did go through the entire draft (yawn :O) and tried to understand (difficult without legal knowledge). I’ve also gone through the draft proposed by Anna Hazare and team (you can read it from here). These are the key differences I have noticed which makes the Jan Lok Pal much better than the Joke Pal the government has tabled.

Feature	Jan Lok Pal	Lok Pal	Impact to Indians
Ability to enquire Prime Minister	Lok Pal will have the powers to initiate investigation and indict PM and PMO	Lok Pal cannot investigate any complaint relating to PM while PM is in power	If the highest person in the government of India is not made accountable by law, it is a shame on us! See what’s going on now – Raja is accusing PM but MMS is simply not answering!
Ability to prosecute MPs and Ministers	Lok Pal will be able to investigate and prosecute any government servant defined as per prevention of corruption act (1988)	Lok Pal will have to submit a report to PM and wait for the report to be discussed in parliament before MPs or Ministers can be prosecuted.	This is another place where UPA’s Lok Pal becomes Joke Pal. In other words, don’t even dare to touch politicians.
Investigation wing	CBI’s anti-corruption unit must be under Lok Pal	A separate wing will be constituted with powers equivalent to Delhi Police	What’s the point in CBI (which works for government) investigating corruption charges against government? If Supreme Court doesn’t intervene every single time (like it does now) nothing will progress.
Ability to enquire senior judges	Lok Pal will be able to investigate and prosecute any government servant defined as per prevention of corruption act (1988) including the Chief Justice of India	Senior Judges cannot be inquired by Lok Pal	Read my previous point where CBI working well only if SC intervenes. What if the CJI himself/herself is part of corruption? Remember CJI K.G.Balakrishnan?
Prosecution Wing	CBI’s prosecution wing to be under Lok Pal. A special court to be formed with retired judges of Supreme Court.	A separate court to be formed. Prosecution of general public within the purview of Lok Pal but cannot prosecute MPs or Ministers.	Prosecution Wing is included just for the sake of inclusion without any real powers to punish politicians.
Ambit	Jan Lok Pal will be able to receive complaints from general public and initiate suo motu against those accused.Any complaint received by Lok Pal to be investigated within 30 days. Any loss to government or public to be recovered from the corrupt.	General public should send their complaints to Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha speaker and it’s left to the Parliament to decide which ones should be investigated by Lok Pal.No authority to enquire low level corruptions.	Another point that makes the government version seriously weak and allow low level corruptions (that people face day to day) to continue.

To sum it up, the government version of the Lok Pal cannot prosecute corrupt MPs and Ministers without the permission of the parliament which is totally absurd. Furthermore, they cannot enquire senior judges and PM who can well be part of the corruption. General public are not given any assurance of elimination of corruption in day to day life and punishment to those who are corrupt is not within the purview of Lok Pal. In a nutshell, Lok Pal will seek help from government to investigate, seek help from government to prosecute, and seek help from government to even appoint its own members, including the chairperson. In other words, Lok Pal will be indirectly controlled by the government, like MMS being controlled by Sonia

4)      The government has betrayed team Anna and the nation

Remember what UPA said when they asked Anna Hazare to withdraw his hunger strike in April’11? They assured to formulate a joint committee which will draft Lok Pal bill. What happened then? The ministers kept closing meetings in disagreement and finally decided to get away with the joint committee totally. Even then Kapil Sibal assured to present both the versions in parliament. But look at what they have done now. The government has silently ignored the version prepared by Anna Hazare’s Panel and just proceeding with the one they made with some minor alterations such as investigation and prosecution powers. This is a total betrayal of the nation which supported Anna Hazare’s movement in April’11. What else can you expect from a government which filed a suit in Supreme Court to stop Supreme Court from formulating a committee to investigate and recover black money? It can happen only in India and only when Congress is ruling.

5)      If it’s not now, it is never

As you might know the very first draft for an independent Lok Pal more than 40 years back. It has taken 40+ years and a strong protest from Anna Hazare and team and the whole nation to even table a Lok Pal bill in the parliament. Now if we allow this weak bill to get passed it might take another 40+ years to strengthen the bill. We not only need a Lok Pal but a strong Lok Pal which can take severe actions against those who are corrupt. If this Lok Pal is setup, it won’t even be able to punish those who are already corrupt, forget about those who commit corruption in future.

This is the right time to bring the right Lok Pal bill by supporting Anna Hazare’s movement in every little way you can, by participating in the protest or participating in a signature drive or just spreading the word, or anything you can do. Remember, it’s now or never! Jai Hind!!

PS: After a long time (since my MS days), I have read, referenced, and written so much in a single day…At least happy that I did not have to include a reference list ..Phew! Time to take some rest before the next post

India chooses to stay with the worst…

Indians have always been tolerant..tolerant of corruption, tolerant of false promises, tolerant of insecure environment, tolerant of lack of infrastructure, tolerant of lack of basic hygiene, tolerant of deteriorating education quality, tolerant of vote bank politics, tolerant of pseudo-secularism, in short, tolerant of anything and everything…that has reflected in the election results now.Though a lot of us keep blaming BJP for its lack of strong allies in many important states and lack of clarity in its leadership, I would rather attribute this result to the indifferent and insensible nature of our voters, both in rural and urban areas. I couldn’t see any anti-incumbency whatsoever even after facing worst possible reign with sky-rocketing inflation, reduced agricultural growth, more former suicides than ever and a much celebrated NREGA which is just written on paper. Even to Congress this could have been a great shock as they were licking every party’s boots till the day before the results. Even bigwigs were asking ‘Sorry’ to old friends to mend the relationship. Nobody can understand what people really think…

MMS Vs Advani

I do not simply understand how can people give a thumbing majority to a government which can claim nothing but the nuclear deal to its list of achievements. It was a total fiasco in all other areas. The government failed to regulate the economy and thus we are having rippling effects of US subprime in India. The government failed to take precautionary measures due to which we had worst terrorist attacks of all the time. Even then clever(?) people of India choose to elect the same government. There can only be two possible reasons: i) Failure of opposition to take relevant issues to the public to create anti-incumbency, ii) Use of power by incumbent government to create unfair advantage for themselves. When these two get combined with the indifferent nature of public, this is the kind of result you get.

First of all, though BJP’s election manifesto and vision statements focused on growth prospects, their campaign targeted unnecessarily at Manmohan Singh which was a mere waste of time. I don’t think people reacted against BJP because they targeted a scholarly person like MMS as projected by media (everyone in this world know that every word spoken about MMS is true to the core and he is nothing but a puppet PM). They should have concentrated more to talk about the failures of congress and the changes BJP can bring about. Secondly, in some states (especially Tamilnadu) the election was not conducted in a fair manner. With strong anti-incumbency, I don’t see any reason how DMK was able to win 18/21 seats in Tamilnadu. I personally know that they distributed money (Rs.500 per vote) and captured booths for voting. Election commission will never worry about these kind of incidents with CEC Navin Chawla being the greatest ‘friend’ of Congress.

Finally, I cannot do anything but pity on our people. One cannot be more idiotic than doing this. If in cities the people were carried away by the media which was always biased, in rural areas people were carried away by false promises and Rahul Gandhi’s personal touch (esp. in UP). I hate dynasty to the core and Rahul being touted as next PM with so many qualified, senior leaders in Congress makes me wonder whether Congressmen have any self-respect. From BJP’s point of view, it is a great opportunity for them to redefine the party with a new leader. As suggested by many, it is time for BJP to understand the ground realities and build a stronger base before 2014. If they simply waste time like they did from 2004-2008, it is not going to help in anyway. Luckily, this election has helped BJP gather support of thousands of youngsters which will help a lot in subsequent elections. Till that time, stay with the worst India. Even God cannot help you

Oscar, is not far!

I was telling almost everyone that I am not going to write on A.R.Rahman’s new feat of getting Golden Globe as almost every tom, dick and harry has discussed about it. But then, I felt, if I don’t write few words praising Rahman here, its meaningless being an ardent Rahman fan and having a blog.

The ‘Mozart of Madras’ as they fondly call, Rahman has made all of us even more proud yesterday. Something that Indian cinema industry has been struggling to do since its inception 60+ years ago. Three Oscar nominations for an Indian and most probable chances of grabbing one…man, I must say I felt elated when I heard about this (I was sure of a nomination, but never expected three)…though many of his compositions in Hindi and Tamil movies are still better than Slumdog Millionaire, it takes an English movie to bring fame to a technician even if he is not English (wish, this changes over time)…

Indian cinema, to be specific, Tamil cinema has seen many talented music directors. There was never a dearth for good music. But, there are only few who have redefined the way music is composed. You can count them easily. In my humble opinion, A.R.Rahman should top the list. Though I am an ardent fan of Ilayaraja also, (in fact I listen to way old songs of 60s and still enjoy them) A.R.Rahman has set a new trend when everyone else was doing the same. Roja – the songs are still fresh and got a place within Top 10 compositions of 100 best soundtracks of the world by Time magazine. Almost every single album of Rahman had something unique in it, which is still true after 18 years since he started his career. That is why, Rahman is often being compared with Sachin Tendulkar. He is a ‘trend setter’ and ‘trend changer’.

Boys, Taxi Taxi, Behka Behka, Masakkali – he is still setting new trends which even younger music directors are afraid to try. He is a living legend and man of humility. Of course, big shots never boast. I can keep writing about A.R.Rahman for several pages…but, all I wanted to say is ‘I pray God to get A.R.Rahman the must deserving Oscar and bring glory to India and wish you do the same’…as a tribute to Rahman, watch and enjoy some of his jingles here (the ones he composed before he got popularity in film music)…

JAI HO!

Living amidst danger – lessons to learn from Israel

Those who know the history of Israel would not be exclaiming too much about the problems India is facing from its neighbours. Instead, they will showcase the strong actions Israel has taken to suppress its enemies as example of  how India should react when it comes to terrorism. With a population less than an average Indian city, Israel has been so effective in protecting itself as well as giving a strong response to attacks.

If you closely observe, similarities between Israel and India are amazing. Israel was formed as part of a partition during its independence separating Jews from rest of Arabs. Right from the very next day of its independence in 1948, till date Israel has been facing threats from its neighbours, just like India.  Even after combined efforts from all Israel’s surrounding Arab countries, no one has been successful in defeating Israel. Jews have suffered many holocausts across the world by many rulers just like how Hindus have. Surprisingly, Judaism is still alive after several thousand years just like Hinduism. 

This has led to many important allies between India and Israel, officially as well emotionally. India was one of the few countries which accommodated several Jewish refugees over the years. Israel has always been in good terms with India. Even after all these, its our blatant failure to learn self-protection from Israel. Even when Israel offered assistance in resolving issues with Pakistan, India has refused to accept to maintain its image as a ‘peace-seeker’ in world arena. Result? We are still facing unwarranted terror attacks in major cities and losing lives every now and then. Even after it has been proved evidently that Pakistan has major role behind these attacks, we are still negotiating with them to accept the facts!

India has strong defence allies with Israel resulting in mutual assistance. This has already put tremendous pressure on Pakistan as it has no way of tackling India-US-Israel ally against terror. It is India, which is procrastinating strong actions resulting in underutilization of these allies. I felt it was totally unnecessary for India to comment on Israel’s attack on Gaza strip as it is Israel’s fundamental rights to protect itself from Hizbullahs of Gaza strip. Communist party has asked Indian government to sever its ties with Israel due to these attacks, proving again that communists will never do any good for India.

Enough is enough. Its time to follow Israel’s footprints in responding to terror. Otherwise, this is how India will be…

Democracy, Freedom, Rights and India

If I remember correctly, I was introduced to the word ‘democracy’ in my civics class when I was doing my 5th standard, i.e 14 years back. After that, I have learned practically what democracy is and how to make the best use of it. As citizens of one of world’s biggest democracies, India, most of us use our rights to the fullest. Do we stop it there? Some times, we tend to go overboard and abuse our rights…I guess we are living in one of the few countries where even a common man criticize prime minister publicly without any fears…even I did that in many of my blogs…

My post, isn’t actually about democracy…its about freedom and the freedom that we enjoy in our motherland…its something special that we miss badly when we get out of India….of course many other countries in this world enjoy better facilities, sophistication and luxurious life…but even after all that, I feel the kind of freedom that we have in India cannot be matched by any country…For instance, let me take a democratic (?) country which is close to us, Singapore…my recent visit to Singapore has given me an opportunity to talk to a commoner of Singapore, a taxi driver…the 20 minutes conversation between us made me realize what we actually think about India is not exactly what it is…

The Chinese taxi driver was quite loquacious (and knowledgable too) and started talking to us about India as soon as we entered into the taxi…he made several valid points which really made me think…He started like this, ‘what do you think about Singapore?’…with my 3 days of experience in Singapore I said I liked it very much and its really a good city…he asked me to compare it with India…I immediately told we badly lack good infrastructure and good roads as I wanted to tell something that he can relate…He immediately pulled out his road tax receipt and shown me…a whopping S$3500 for 3 months…he told, if Indians are ready to pay 1000 Rs for every year he can make the Indian roads better than Singapore roads…I nodded to show my consent…

Being an Indian, I could not resist myself from talking about corruption in India…he laughed at me and asked ‘Which form of corruption do you think is more dangerous? The one that happens under the table or the one that happens over the table?’…My answer was obvious…I said ‘the one that happens over the table’…he said ‘Thats what happens here in Singapore’…its called a democratic country but no one has freedom to criticize the government officials…they are demi-Gods…what they say is law and even reporters cannot write bad about them…the ruling party ‘PAP’ has been ruling Singapore since it has become democratic and only Lee’s dyansty is ruling Singapore…people cast their votes with fear…government can even find who have voted against their party…after doing all these, the members of the parliament are paid an unimaginable salary which is tax free…now tell me, what do you think about Singapore?’…Being from a communist country like China which gives absolutely no freedom to its citizens, i f the driver was so pissed off, think about Indians who go to Singapore…but, we are so tolerant and can tolerate anything…otherwise, how can Indians live in countries like UAE…

We enjoy great freedom in India… but are we really making use of it in the right way?…never…we are all looking for opportunities to exploit the rights that we have…not only in India, but wherever we go…and no one can deny that…

The discussion went on for nearly 20 minutes…when I was getting out, he reminded me ‘your freedom to speak ends here…stop talking about this after you get out’…my lips uttered ‘Mera Bharat Mahan’ in a reflex…

Singh is ‘still’ King in tainted Parliament House

A drama that lasted for more than a year, has culminated. Even after left has withdrawn its support, Manmohan Singh’s government escaped in the Trust Votes motion by a whisker.This climax has both positive and adverse effects on our country. Before my views on them, I wish to brief more on the drama.

This confidence motion has been in the headlines in all the media for past 2 weeks. MPs kidnapped, MPs house arrested, MPs are being bribed – these were the headlines in many newspapers and television channels. It reached the peak point when 3 BJP MPs shown the advance amount in parliament which they claim to have got from Amar Singh for voting in favor of the government. This cannot be any worse as the whole world has watched it LIVE. Whether their allegations are true or not, it is certainly a shame for both the MPs who revealed it in parliament and the congress which tried all possible ways of saving the government by mortgaging its reputation.

Manmohan Singh’s address was more of a politician’s address than an educated individual’s. He was mostly replying to Advani’s pointed attacks rather than answering them. He was digging into Advani’s political history and geography rather than telling convincing reasons in favor of UPA government. As the opposition leader LK Advani rightly said, ‘this is just a win on numerical grounds and not on moral grounds’.

Now, coming to the point. This win is good for completing the ‘nuke deal’ or the ‘nuclear agreement’ (as the govt says) which has been pending for so long time for needless political reasons. This win will surely be good (though temporarily) for the tumbling stock markets which was evident today when SENSEX and NIFTY broke all resistance levels set by analysts. But these good things are nullified by the fact that we may have to endure this sterile UPA government for 6 more months. As I have been saying for a long time, this minority appeasing anti-Hindu government has failed in almost all fields. They are neither able to control inflation nor terrorism. I don’t think another 6 months of rule can make any drastic difference in the outcome of impending general elections. And the biggest comedy is Mayawati’s statement saying both NDA and UPA don’t want her to be the prime minister as if everyone is begging her to take the BIG seat.

Whatever said and done, being the first prime minister not eligible to vote in a confidence motion to save his crown, ‘Singh is still King’

PS: I have composed this post yesterday and due to internet connectivity issues, I was not able post it. I did not want my efforts to go futile and so posted this. Though the news is very old, I feel my views are fresh…