It all started at Jantar Mantar. A man called by media as "Mahatma Gandhi" of modern India sat for the fast till death. Whole India went into a revolutionary mode. Almost everyone dreamt of securing a place on Jantar Mantar. The hippo (read congress government) also left its place & came forward for the discussions and whole India went into celebrations after a joint committee was formed. This was going good till the old Gandhian went a bit too long with his dream agenda on Jan Lokpal Bill. The first draft which has came has many glaring issues which will give Jan Lokpal the powers of becoming a Hitler and at the same time, it will be a tool in the hands of nuisance creators to harass the general public. Let's analyze how.
The fundamental flaw is in the proposed working mechanism of lokpal. The lokpal has both investigation & punishment authorities. This is fundamentally against the principles of Indian constitution. The investigation authorities and punishment authorities should be completely separate. God forbid if even one committee goes berserk, they can become virtual Hitlers. This is something which looks good only in books in the name of complete transparency and process. But the actual results can be disastrous.
The first thing is about the complaint structure. The bill says that if any citizen feels that he/she is being taken for a ride and is being made to pay the bribe, he/she may approach the lokpal. The case will be registered, investigations will go on. The concerned government officer will have to bear the brunt of the same. If he is guilty, well he deserves it. But if that complaint is done to take care of personal matters or simply to harass the officer, there is no mechanism to punish the complainant. So it gives a free access to all the negative elements in the society to harass the honest officers. In the worst case, it can be used as a threat also.
Second is about the lokpal himself. If someone complains against the lokpal team member himself, then the same team with whom he is working will investigate the case. The case has to be closed within 2 months and if the lokpal is found guilty, he/she will be removed from the panel. Now how reliable the trial will be since these will be part of the same team. Next is why only removal from panel. The lokpal should also be given all the punishments given to a politician or a government official.
Third is about the panel formation. As per the latest draft, the lokpal committee will have retired judges and other representatives from the same age group. The other law making agencies like Anti-corruption bureau of CBI and state authorities will be merged with them. With complete respect to senior citizens, I still feel that these people basically lack the physical ability to work 12-16 hours a day, investigate cases, not to involve emotions, travel to the corners daily and meet the most notorious criminals. This has to have the young generation representatives in the committee to have fresher view-points and execution capabilities.
Fourth one is the lokpal committee rules. The person can be punished only if the crime can be proved. This is completely right. Now if the CBI and State bureaus are not working and this committee of 10 odd people is handling whole cities, where is the man power to lay traps to catch the culprits red handed, the complete network of informers to find out where the culprits are hiding. There is no rule in the lokpal draft which says that lokpal has all the authorities to make local police work on lokpal cases. Without this, I doubt the lokpal committee will be able to do justice to even 10% of the cases.
Fifth one is the timeline. 1 year is a short time to punish someone after gathering all the details. The money may be lying in Swiss bank accounts, in land deals or in many fake name lockers. Getting all these entities in sync and getting all the data out may easily take 4-5 years in case of bigger frauds. The estimation of losses caused to nation due to this fraud may again take longer time. Hence the 1-2 year timeline is really really optimistic. This might just turn the whole lokpal agenda turtle & make it a body to punish smaller criminals while letting the big fishes enjoy their stay.
Last but not the least. The path of review is still unclear. If the person deemed as a criminal by lokpal feels that he is not guilty, then what. Does he have an option to appeal in court. If yes, the basic purpose is defeated. If no, then how do you handle the appeals? With number of cases & 10 people on team, how efficiently can a 1 year deadline be met? This bill needs a lot of revisions to be able to govern the lokpal proceedings properly. If this fantasy bill of Anna Hazare is implemented AS-IS, then the results will really be disastrous!!!
The fundamental flaw is in the proposed working mechanism of lokpal. The lokpal has both investigation & punishment authorities. This is fundamentally against the principles of Indian constitution. The investigation authorities and punishment authorities should be completely separate. God forbid if even one committee goes berserk, they can become virtual Hitlers. This is something which looks good only in books in the name of complete transparency and process. But the actual results can be disastrous.
The first thing is about the complaint structure. The bill says that if any citizen feels that he/she is being taken for a ride and is being made to pay the bribe, he/she may approach the lokpal. The case will be registered, investigations will go on. The concerned government officer will have to bear the brunt of the same. If he is guilty, well he deserves it. But if that complaint is done to take care of personal matters or simply to harass the officer, there is no mechanism to punish the complainant. So it gives a free access to all the negative elements in the society to harass the honest officers. In the worst case, it can be used as a threat also.
Second is about the lokpal himself. If someone complains against the lokpal team member himself, then the same team with whom he is working will investigate the case. The case has to be closed within 2 months and if the lokpal is found guilty, he/she will be removed from the panel. Now how reliable the trial will be since these will be part of the same team. Next is why only removal from panel. The lokpal should also be given all the punishments given to a politician or a government official.
Third is about the panel formation. As per the latest draft, the lokpal committee will have retired judges and other representatives from the same age group. The other law making agencies like Anti-corruption bureau of CBI and state authorities will be merged with them. With complete respect to senior citizens, I still feel that these people basically lack the physical ability to work 12-16 hours a day, investigate cases, not to involve emotions, travel to the corners daily and meet the most notorious criminals. This has to have the young generation representatives in the committee to have fresher view-points and execution capabilities.
Fourth one is the lokpal committee rules. The person can be punished only if the crime can be proved. This is completely right. Now if the CBI and State bureaus are not working and this committee of 10 odd people is handling whole cities, where is the man power to lay traps to catch the culprits red handed, the complete network of informers to find out where the culprits are hiding. There is no rule in the lokpal draft which says that lokpal has all the authorities to make local police work on lokpal cases. Without this, I doubt the lokpal committee will be able to do justice to even 10% of the cases.
Fifth one is the timeline. 1 year is a short time to punish someone after gathering all the details. The money may be lying in Swiss bank accounts, in land deals or in many fake name lockers. Getting all these entities in sync and getting all the data out may easily take 4-5 years in case of bigger frauds. The estimation of losses caused to nation due to this fraud may again take longer time. Hence the 1-2 year timeline is really really optimistic. This might just turn the whole lokpal agenda turtle & make it a body to punish smaller criminals while letting the big fishes enjoy their stay.
Last but not the least. The path of review is still unclear. If the person deemed as a criminal by lokpal feels that he is not guilty, then what. Does he have an option to appeal in court. If yes, the basic purpose is defeated. If no, then how do you handle the appeals? With number of cases & 10 people on team, how efficiently can a 1 year deadline be met? This bill needs a lot of revisions to be able to govern the lokpal proceedings properly. If this fantasy bill of Anna Hazare is implemented AS-IS, then the results will really be disastrous!!!
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