My take on Lokpal
by sriwidu
Indians now believe that a second freedom struggle is now in progress, and that lokpal, if implemented, would change the current fate of this great nation. But, when I tried to hypothetically apply the solution to the current society we live in, it raised a lot of concerns. Further, Many feeble apprehensions I had had, have now become deep rooted. Read on…
In my opinion, any problem should be given a permanent solution, and permanent solutions devised to resolve problems at the scale of corruption cannot produce fruits overnight. Lokpal is a force, and is only a temporary solution or can even be called a workaround. It primarily focuses on how to crack down the corrupt, but fails to focus on preventing corruption, and doesn’t even come close to addressing it. Prevention is an ever-lasting solution, and that is what we need to focus on. Unfortunately, Lokpal loses its points here!!! It is like whipping a child when he had already placed his dirty hand in your wonderful desert.
Further, Lokpal, if in wrong hands could dangerously backfire.
A similar lokpal bill has worked inMalaysiaand gave wonderful results. Why doesn’t it work here?
I am a Database Administrator. To perform an upgrade on a production database or to even apply a single fix or a patch, I prefer to test the change on a test database, which matches my production in all its parameters. It is only then that the results and performance can be matched. A test on a higher version of database will not give the same results on another database at a different version or usability.
Summing it up,MalaysiaandIndiadiffer.Indiais a country with lot of complex variables each intertwined with each other. Complex enough for things to backfire and become irrevocable. To find a solution, each variable needs to be considered. We need to consider people,religions,castes,sub castes,sentiments,resources,idolizing…literally everything around us, failing which there would be a series of conflicts of interests and conflicts of rules. Expecting Lokpal to give similar results inIndiais only ignorance and wrong extrapolation.
Rules inIndiaare made to resolve problems, but even before you start resolving them you would find that other rules, resources and sometimes the system itself obstruct them.
In gandhinagar, there exist 3 schools affordable enough, thereby enabling the kids living in nearby slums to attend. A simple stare at the school buildings is enough to conclude that the schools don’t meet all the mandatory standards (except that they have a wonderful fire exit plan because they don’t even have walls). It doesn’t take much brain to understand how these schools might have got their permissions.
Now, if the schools had to follow all the rules, majority of them a mere overhead, they would’ve been costlier, and out of the reach for a rickshaw pullar’s kid. Who knows? They might not have been setup in the first place.
My question is -
If there is someone who is happy with basic education with basic amenities, then why impose overheads and deny the child basic education by making education unaffordable? (A problem intertwined with other). Instead, only give what can be afforded; scrap the rest of the rules, which are not applicable. If possible, make education free!!!
In this example, crime of bypassing the rule by corruption was not done for a luxury but it was done as a necessity, and because of no other way out. I am not saying that it is right, but doing so makes sense. Further, as long as the children receive education, I am happy with how the access to education is made possible for those tiny-tots.
Gandhi Vs Anna?
This is the most assumed and emotionally driven comparison I had ever seen.
Why?
The path chosen by Anna may be gandhian, but his demands are definitely not. Gandhi would have never wished for punishment or a rule to punish people. Instead, he would have first worked to reform the system, more importantly, educate people!
Yes, education and enlightenment are the keywords. Even before we got our independence, Gandhi made a major accomplishment. He succeeded in uniting the Indians to fight for freedom.India’s freedom struggle then came under one roof. He did so by educating people. Gandhi gave speeches and spoke at length trying to motivate and educate people. Anna straight away started the struggle; unfortunately, he didn’t start by educating the nation importance of the absence of corruption.
Lokpal of honesty
Jan lokpal assures that it only recruits honest members to fight corruption, but doesn’t explain how it does that. It should at least explain what is honesty, and how the honesty of a person verified. To recruit even a group of 1000 honest people with high integrity is a daunting task. To cater to the cases across this great nation, just imagine the scale of recruitment, which needs to be carried out for a body like lokpal.
Credentials can be verified and intelligence tested, but what you cannot do is to measure the honesty of a person and compare it with a threshold value.
There are atrocity acts, which impose strict punishments on people harassing others with their caste. But how many of us know that at the grass root level it is misused at unprecedented levels. Lands were grabbed, superiors are even blackmailed by the subordinates when questioned about illegal dealings thereby hindering the work and leaving out possible chances of maintaining integrity.
Jan Lokpal is much more powerful that such atrocity acts put together, worse, there wouldn’t even be a CBI anti-corruption wing or a CVC to keep a check on lokpal members from getting corrupt, for, both the CVC and the anti-corruption wing would have been integrated with the Lokpal.All it takes to verify and safeguard people from corrupt lokpal members is “THE SUPREME COURT” itself. Human rights will constantly be compromised if Lokpal is not continuously monitored.
Don’t you think this will turn out to be an additional overhead and load the Human Rights Commission?
Aren’t strict laws enough to prevent corruption?
No, definitely not! Time had proven it. We have had laws to punish a murderer, a rapist, an arsonist and even a husband. But still, people still get killed and women are brutally raped in the capital city ofIndia. Time has proven that laws neither stop people from taking vengeance nor do they stop people from quenching their lust. Unless and until a person has a clear conscience of what he should do and he should not do, no one can stop him from committing a crime.
Be honest, be the change yourself and spread this message as much as you can. The change in the system will be slow, dead slow…but the change will definitely be permanent.
Remember – “Law can only punish the criminal, but it can never prevent a crime!!!”
- Sriwidu
