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

A black Monday and a green(?) Tuesday

This is something which I wanted to write when I attended my first career fair 4 months ago, but then stalled the idea as I was not exactly sure of how the system works here. Now, after attending my 4th career fair today (after a day in which US lost 71,400 jobs), I feel educated enough to write a post on career fairs and the current situation.

Coming to the point, beginning student life again after 4 years of a high paying job is not that easy. Initially you might be enjoying the feeling of being back to the student life but then when you realize that you are ‘actually’ jobless and need to get one, the pressure builds up. Career Fairs will most probably be the first opportunity for many students here to meet potential employers. In every career fair (be it engineering, retail, business, geoscience, etc, etc) you can see Indian students dressed up in suits with a folder in hand carrying bunch of resumes visiting almost every stall. By the end of the day, it hurts when many end up with lot of goodies in hand but not even one promising offer (especially International students).

In fact, I was wondering about how changed I am, for good! I never bothered about a job during my undergrad in India. I was told by one of my friends that TCS is visiting our campus in a week. I just casually prepared and some how made it (Believe me, my confidence with English was extremely low that time compared to now). But then, the competition here with a gloomy market makes you really worry about securing a job and makes you more mature and better prepared. Good thing is that, the job market is dry but still not dire, which was evident from today’s career fair (and the word green has been added to the title to denote that). So, there are opportunities out here and there and it entails lot of efforts to land in one of them. At times, it might make you regret on the decision to leave a job and do higher studies. But, if you are lucky (seriously, that is what is needed with this market), you might get good opportunities too.

I had a very tiring day today having three 1:15 hour classes (I bunked one of them) and a whole day with potential (?) employers at the career fair repeating almost the same dialogs with each of them and handing over my resume. As a resolution, I decided not to collect any goodie this time and I never did I wrote this post not to educate any one on career fairs but to advise those aspirants of Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 from India to reconsider their decisions. A couple of days back, I got a chance to talk with the CIO of AMD. The first question he asked me was ‘So, are you planning to take another course here once you are done?’. Thats the kind of confidence he has on this market. Even if there are some improvements, I don’t expect any miracles within a year. So, its better safe to play a wait and watch game rather than getting into the quagmire like us. Be happy with your current job

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…

Child Labor – Demolish it with Iron Hands

Got to see this video in YouTube through one of my friends. I was really taken aback by the capability of the kid to remember in so many languages without any flaws. If he is given proper education, it is sure that he will go greater heights. But why he is not given education. Because, his economic conditions doesn’t allow him to go to schools. Even if the education is given free, even if mid-day meal is provided in schools, children are hindered from going to schools by their parents and guardians. Main reason is the income coming via the children.

It is true that some of these families are truly dependent on the income coming via the children, but in other cases these kids are forced to take up menial jobs and bring money home. As far as I have checked, the child labor laws as on 5th Feb 1996 give punishment and imprisonment only to the employers of child labor and not the ones who actually induce this this, the parents.

In this year’s budget, we have seen the Govt has emphasizing on improving the primary education, which is quite a good move. But, there was no explicit action mentioned on eradicating child labor. When no kid is allowed to go to school, what is the point in opening new schools?

So, what is the real solution for this? Govt has to strengthen the laws of Child labor. Mere 20,000 fine will not do. License has to be seized for all those who are using child labors in their shops and factories. Once the demand goes down, avaricious parents have no choice but to leave the children to get their aspirations. Really poor children who are not even able to make it to free schools need to be identified and help must be provided at individual level. Mere ‘Sarva Siksha Abhiyan’ schemes won’t help unless some serious action is taken.

PS: If you happen to see any child labor in Chennai and Kanchipuram districts please warn the owner of the shop or factory. If s/he doesn’t heed to what you say, please call 27221090 with the details.