LOKPAL BILL - RIGHTS BASED APPROACH TO CITIZEN’S CHARTERS

Archana Prasad

PUBLIC debate on the Lokpal Bill has resulted in the focus on the need to redress grievances of the common people. One of the three assurances given by the parliament to anti-corruption activists has been that the government will consider it mandatory for all departments to have public service and citizen’s charters. Since the post 1990s such charters are seen as an important mechanism of a larger public grievance redressal system. In India 47 central organisations and departments follow the practice of having citizen charters. Some states like Madhya Pradesh and Bihar also have Right to Public Services Act that make the citizen’s charter mandatory in order to ensure efficient public service delivery systems. But the timing of the popularisation of the concept of citizen’s charter needs to be questioned. In many countries their introduction was linked with attempts to privatise basic services and also argue for less government in welfare and basic amenities. Therefore it is important to understand the character and context of the introduction of citizen’s charters and explore the ways in which democratic forces can use them to fight for the rights of common people.

ORIGINS OF CITIZEN CHARTER

Margaret Thatcher’s government in Britain made one of the earliest attempts at setting up a grievance redress system. The effort was focused on assessing the quality of public services and carrying out basic reforms in the governance. It is well known that the Thatcher government was an ardent advocate of ‘less government’ and the reforms were meant to make the government smaller and more efficient. But it was not till the time of conservative government of John Major that the first citizen’s charters were first introduced in 1991. The main aim of these charters was to measure the performance of agencies providing basic services and make basic changes in the delivery system in order to make them more client oriented. Within this perspective, basic services were not to be considered a matter of right but a part of a patron-client relationship that the State was to set up with its citizen’s. It is important to note that such a change was a result of the policies which were attempting to introduce user fees and privatise health and water services. In line with this the citizen’s charter tried to ensure a change in the attitude of the service provider and instil a competitive spirit that would help to ensure efficiency and quality. A system of Charter Marks was introduced in 1992 in order to achieve this objective. A number of marks and certification was provided to service providers who achieved a degree of excellence. The choice and quality of services, user satisfaction, the behaviour of the service delivery officials etc were some of the important elements to judge performance and give grades. It was noted that service providers were entering into high competition with each other in order to get marks so that they could market their services better. Thus the markers themselves became an important part of a market oriented social marketing strategy. In subsequent years these charter marks were incorporated into the “service first” and “modernising government” programmes of the Tony Blair government. They have also become the basis for the Indian government’s ‘Sevottam’ guidelines for evaluating the performance of departments.

Experiences of other European countries differed from the ones in Britain in later years. In an alternative framework for improving public services, citizen’s charters began to concentrate more on ‘obligations, accountability and responsibilies’ in Scandanavian and eastern European nations. This was the case of the charters introduced in the Czech Republic in 2006 whose focus was on the improvements within the welfare systems. In the case of Denmark, Finland and other countries with strong public systems of welfare, redressal mechanisms are decentralised and authority is delegated to the level of the local self government. These charters also emphasise the moral and ethical responsibilities of the public service delivery systems. Such systems increase the accountability of State structures and help in the democratisation of governance. Therefore their experiences can provide some lessons for the Indian law makers who seem to be using the market-oriented model as the only benchmark for developing new guidelines.

INDIAN EXPERIENCE

Seen in this context, the Indian experience with citizen’s charters has been a disappointing one as shown by a study of citizen’s charters in 47 central departments and organisations by the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA). The study suggested that even though many of these charters specified their vision and types of services provided, they were not performing an effective role in linking common people with the government. As required by the charter, most of them did specify the contact persons and officers to which complaints may be made. However 41 per cent of them did not specify the timeframe within which these complaints were to be redressed. About 60 per cent of the charters did not indicate any system or time frame for acknowledging the complaints. Only 2.7 per cent of the charters were committed to conveying the outcome of the complaint to the complainant. Only one third of the charters invited suggestions from users for the improvement in services where as none of the citizen’s charters made any commitment towards reviewing their performance on the basis of these suggestions. Because of these difficulties the charters were merely fulfilling the formal requirement of spreading awareness about their services and registering grievances of the users. Further they were not backed up by any infrastructural or support mechanisms to follow up complaints and find rapid solutions. Some of these issues have not even been addressed by Right to Public Service Acts of some of the state governments in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

Access of common people to grievance redressal mechanisms is another issue which has been analysed by another IIPA survey covering grievance redressal mechanisms. The analysis shows that the current system of grievance redressal is highly centralised in character. In most ministries director and joint secretary level officials are the grievance redressal officers and handle this portfolio with several other responsibilities. Further the citizen’s charters and jurisdiction of the officers extends largely to their own ministries and bureaucratic structures. It leaves out many agencies which have been sub-contracted to provide these services at the local level. This factor is especially important in the light of the neo-liberal policy of privatising basic services like power, water, health and education. Experiences with private agencies in the power sector have shown that the functioning of these agencies is very non-transparent and their public accountability limited. A similar experience is also seen in the case of the privatisation of service delivery mechanisms under the mission convergence programme of the Delhi government. Hence it needs to be explored whether the Citizen’s Charters can provide a window of opportunity to increase the social control and accountability of such agencies.

ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE

The discussion above highlights some of the issues that an alternative approach to the grievance redressal and Citizen’s Charter should address. A Charter will have to reflect the rights of citizens and the systemic accountability and obligations of different levels of the State. It will only be meaningful if access to basic services is ensured through the recognition of rights in relevant legislation. For example the citizen’s charters in education and employment sectors needs to reflect the obligations and accountability that are imposed on different state structures by the legislations such as NREGS and Right to Education. Similarly citizen’s charters in the food, health and urban services sectors will only be meaningful once these rights are recognised by law. Only then can such charters and redressal systems be agents of democratic decentralisation and social control.

In the light of this an alternative legislation needs to be sector specific laying down common rights, obligations, norms and standards of all services provided in that sector. Every public or private service delivery agency should have common citizen’s charters reflecting basic sectoral social responsibilities and obligations. In line with this perspective the institutional mechanism to be setup must ensure obligations and accountability of all levels of government on the one hand and the protection of the rights of government employees on the other hand. This will also orient the system towards institutional corrections, rather than the harassment of employees who may themselves be victims of systemic failures. The fixing of such responsibilities and obligations from the lowest level of service delivery would also facilitate decentralisation of decision making. In order to make this practicable, each local self government and agency should have not only a citizen’s charter but also budgetary and infrastructural support that can deal with grievances on a day to day basis within a fixed time frame. In this framework an effectively decentralised grievance redressal mechanism would not only deal with ‘complaints’ of individual users, but also with violation of norms and the obligations reflected in the citizen’s charters. Penalties should be imposed on delays in meeting obligations and redressal of complaints. Finally, a democratic system of grievance redressal should make public consultations and social audits mandatory at all levels. Grievance redressal mechanisms should be socially representative and equipped to deal with people in local languages, thus ensuring transparency and local participation. Thus the current challenge before all democratic forces is to build up public pressure to ensure that any proposed legislation for right to public services focuses on these principles that make the State and other agencies engaged in service delivery more accountable and transparent. In this situation the citizen’s charter has the potential of becoming a vehicle for public mobilisation against a neo-liberal State.

Courtesy: People's Democracy

BRINDA KARAT ON PM’S STATEMENT ON ANNA’S ARREST

(This is an edited version of the speech made in Rajya Sabha by Brinda Karat on August 17, 2011 in response to the prime minister’s statement.)

GOING through the statement of the prime minister, I can only say that this statement adds salt to the wounds which have been inflicted on the polity of this country by the authoritarian and undemocratic actions of the UPA government in the last two days.

What we have seen on the streets of Delhi is a blatant assault on the democratic rights of citizens of this country, granted to them by the constitution of India, to peaceful protest. Going by what the prime minister has said, it seems that he wants to add a new chapter to the fairytales which this country has been fed by the home minister. We have been subjected to statements by the home minister who wants the nation to believe that the arrest of Anna Hazare is not a political decision of the government; there have been no discussions at the higher levels of the government about it.

The government has thus been closing its eyes to what is happening on the streets of this country saying that the entire responsibility is that of the Delhi Police to take action on something which obviously requires political action. If this is indeed true, if it is the Delhi Police in fact which has been taking the action, then one can only accuse this government of the worst type of dereliction of duty. You have withdrawn from your duty of intervening on an issue which has enraged and outraged the mass of people of this country. But we know that this is a fairytale. We know that it is the government which decided to browbeat the group of protesters led by Anna Hazare who had appealed to the prime minister himself. They knew that ultimately it will have to be a political decision to allow them to exercise their democratic right to protest. On both these issues – on the aspect of the political decision which was required and on the aspect of ensuring that the democratic rights of the citizens are protected in this country – this government has utterly failed. Therefore, we strongly condemn the government and regret that the prime minister’s statement is so insensitive to this assault on democratic rights.

SELECTIVE AMNESIA

The second issue which the prime minister’s statement has raised is that of the civil society challenging the parliament. The government’s contention is that once a bill is sent to the standing committee, it is the property of parliament and to challenge it is to challenge parliament.

I am simply amazed at the selective amnesia of this government. Have there not been occasions in the past when there have been bills in parliament and there have been protests outside? Have you forgotten what happened with the women’s reservation bill? It happened twice. First it went to a select committee and then it went to a standing committee. Were there not protests outside parliament against the women’s reservation bill at that time? Did we hear a single minister stand up in this house and say that that was an attack on parliament; that they were trying to hold parliament to ransom; and that they were defying parliament?

Don’t try to feed us these stories. The people of India are not going to accept it. You are bringing in all kinds of bills, using your brute majority, to push them through with some help from ‘the friends’ on the right. Which are all those bills that you are bringing in parliament? The Bank Privatisation Bill and the Insurance FDI Bill. We know that the BJP is going to help them. Then, of course, there will be a “consensus in parliament.” Of course, they (the BJP) are going to do it. But I want to say and I want to assert the right of the people of this country to protest against these bills, because it shows that this government is captive to corporates. You are a government which is captive to corporates. You kowtow to corporates and you treat civil society with contempt and send them to jail. This is the message which this government is giving.

Therefore, the second point that I want to make is that the civil society, mass organisations and trade unions of workers or peasants have every right to protest. If weak and ineffective, as in case of a Lokpal, and blatantly anti-poor legislative drafts are brought to the standing committees, we will protest, and we will force this government to hear the voice of the people. Bring an effective and strong bill against corruption.

CONTEMPT FOR PARLIAMENT

The third issue is that the prime minister has talked about the great majesty of parliament. Very lofty statements are being made. But it is this government which has shown utmost contempt for parliament. Please look at the statement of the prime minister. It says, “Notwithstanding the introduction of the bill….” and then “….extensive consultations and discussions, including deliberations in a joint drafting committee and a meeting of all political parties represented....” Why do you want to mislead the house? What is this meeting of the political parties that you called? First of all, you insulted political parties by sending them a questionnaire on the issues of Lokpal in which you said ‘yes’ or ‘no’. The questions were: Do you agree with this? State ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Do you not agree with that? State ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Is this the way you respect the political parties who are represented in this house? We do not agree to the framework of your drafting committee. We have our own opinion. But is that the way you treat the opinions of political parties? You call that ‘discussion with political parties’! You insulted political parties. You have a drafting committee. Did you ask anybody about it? Did you include any of the representatives of political parties in this house?

Who is contemptuous of parliament? It is you. Who had sent the finance minister, your senior-most minister after the prime minister, to the airport with red carpet and flowers to greet a particular swamiji? Who did it? It is you who did it. You held parliament in contempt by doing that. Now you are making the same accusation against others. Who will believe you?

After spinning such fairy tales, at night, suddenly the ‘prince charming’ comes and you have a political spin and you inform all the TV channels that there was a high level meeting and all the wrong things are going to be rectified because of the intervention of the Congress general secretary. But your tales and your cover-up were thoroughly exposed, because the conditions that you placed in the morning when you arrested Anna Hazare are the same conditions that you placed at night when you came with the so-called release order for him but he refused to play your game and come out of jail. Therefore, we say, stop this charade. Don’t use the shoulders of parliament to shoot at people. It’s not going to work. Release Anna Hazare and his colleagues unconditionally.

GOVT SETS RECORD OF BEING CORRUPT

The parliament and all MPs in this house know their rights. We don’t require you to defend them. You should take action against those who are corrupt in your own government. We have not seen any end to scams. What is the KG gas basin scam of the petroleum ministry? What has happened with the Air India, the sell-off of Air India? There are more scams which are waiting to be unearthed, or peeled, like the onion peels, one after another…. 2G, Commonwealth Games, now KG Basin, Air India, you cannot escape….

I know there are many in the Congress party today who are deeply dismayed at what is happening. They may not be able to speak here in parliament. But, we have heard them speaking in private conversations. We know their opinions. They are deeply dismayed. We understand that. We are not saying that everybody in the ruling party or treasury benches shares what is happening. But, the fact of the matter is that this government has established a record of being corrupt, of being arrogant and now of being inept. You are defending corporates. Parliament is not going to sit silent when you give a big business house such rights to subvert all rules and regulations.

I have only two points left. I want to say in this house: Don’t divide the civil society. You divide everybody. We know how you play one against the other. But don’t divide the civil society. Don’t tell that these people are good because they are from the NAC and they accept what you say. Don’t do that. I have great respect for my friends in the NAC but don’t privilege one section of civil society and send the other section of the civil society to jail. That is not going to be appreciated by this country. Don’t have double standards in dealing with citizens of this country. If you have double standards in dealing with citizens of this country, people are not going to take that.

Lastly, the prime minister has talked about certain forces. I will read that sentence. It says, “There are many forces that would not like to see India realise its true place in the comity of nations.” I would really request the prime minister to please spell out who are these forces. We have seen these forces. We have seen these forces and their representatives, in the name of a strategic alliance, come to India, their secretary of state comes here and tells the parliament that you have passed a law, the Nuclear Liability Act, but it is a wrong one, so change it. Is that not the contempt of parliament? Will the government accept that? In whose hands is this government playing? Therefore, defend India, defend the sovereignty of India, don’t bow down before corruption and don’t use parliament’s shoulder to shoot at the people of this country. It will not be accepted. Bring a strong Lokpal Bill. With these words, we reject the statement of the prime minister.

Courtesy: People’s Democracy

AUGUST 23 PROTEST DAY - NATIONWIDE PROTESTS FOR EFFECTIVE LOKPAL BILL

AT the call of the Left and secular opposition parties, demonstrations and dharnas were held all over the country on August 23 to demand an effective Lokpal legislation and other measures to curb corruption.

Delhi: MPs belonging to various parties sat on dharna in Parliament House carrying placards demanding an effective Lokpal Bill.

Kerala: In 138 centres big demonstrations were held.

Tamilnadu: In Tamilnadu, picketing outside collectorates were conducted in all districts.

Andhra Pradesh: In Hyderabad a dharna was organised and similar dharnas were organised in all district centres.

West Bengal: A procession was organised in Kolkata. Rallies and processions were taken out in all other district centres.

Tripura: A big rally was organised in Agartala. Processions and meetings were organised in all other district centres.

Karnataka: A dharna was organised in Bangalore and there were demonstrations and dharnas in nine other districts.

Uttar Pradesh: In Uttar Pradesh, demonstrations and dharnas were held in Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Deoria, Balia, Etawah, Bulandshehar, Sultanpur and other places.

Orissa: A dharna was staged before the Raj Bhavan in Bhubaneswar.

Jharkhand: A big dharna was organised in Ranchi. Dharnas were also organised in Dhanbad, Bokaro, Sahebganj, Hazaribagh, Palamu and other districts.

Rajasthan: Demanding firm action against corruption, the Left parties organised demonstrations and rallies in Jaipur and 17 other districts.

IN KOLKATA

COMBAT against corruption and corporate loot is the call of the nation. Thousands of people under the banner of West Bengal Left Front hit Kolkata streets to protest against corruption, corporate loot and neo-liberal economic policies.

The rally was marked with banners and posters demanding an effective Lokpal Bill, judicial enquiry commission and electoral reforms. Prior to the rally, Left Front chairman Biman Basu addressed the huge gathering at Metro channel near Esplanade. He made it clear that the CPI(M) and the Left Front have no problem with Anna fighting against corruption in his own style. He also emphasised on pursuing and converging all the anti-corruption struggles to compell the union government to take apt and necessary steps to curb rampant corruption. But maintaining the Party’s reservations on the mode of Anna’s movement, Basu was keen to mention that the root-cause of corruption is the neo-liberal economic policy and crony capitalism. In order to combat corruption we must fight to demolish the neo-liberal policies of the government. The mega-scams that are unfolding now, show how thousands of crores of rupees worth of public resources have been illicitly cornered by the big corporate- politician-bureaucrat nexus. He also dealt with the grave issue of unearthing black money from the Swiss bank accounts. Basu demanded that the central government must reveal the names of those having secret bank accounts in Swiss or other overseas banks. Basu also mentioned that the increasing rate of bribery and the scourge of black money are polluting the democratic space of the nation. The country must have effective electoral reforms in order to combat the increasing menace. Basu emphasised that the proposed reforms must be implemented, otherwise the LF is ready to organise huge nation-wide protest campaigns. Other Left leaders, including Manjukumar Majumder, Pratim Chatterjee and Dilip Sen also shared the dais.

After this short proceeding, the rally started, led by the leaders of the West Bengal Left Front. Thousands of people walked through the streets holding banners showing the main demands and shouting slogans. The procession enthusiastically demanded the enactment of an effective Lokpal Bill and stringent action to unearth the black money from the overseas accounts. The rally moving through the Lenin Sarani, ended at the Sealdah Court and the nationwide battle to combat corruption got pumped up again.

IN KERALA

AS part of the Left nationwide protest campaign in favour of an effective Lokpal Bill, the LDF held protest marches across the state of Kerala in which thousands of people participated. The LDF also observed the protest day to demand the resignation of chief minister Oommen Chandy, who is tainted in the infamous palmoline case.

In Thiruvananthapuram, workers of three constituencies participated in the ‘March to Secretariat’. Rest of the 127 constituency headquarters witnessed massive rallies demanding the resignation of the chief minister.

The leader of opposition in the state assembly, V S Achuthanandan inaugurated the march. Speaking on this occasion he demanded that Oommen Chandy must realise the wrath of the people against corruption and he should quit since he stood charged in the palmoline case.

CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, CPI leader Binoy Viswom, JD(S) Gangadharan Nadar, Kerala Congress leader V Surendran Pillai led the march. CPI(M) central committee members E P Jayarajan and A Vijayaraghavan inaugurated the march at Thalasseri and Thrissur respectively. LDF convenor Vaikom Viswon and central committee member P K Sreemathi also attended the protest marches.

IN TRIPURA

THE four Left parties organised a protest march in Agartala followed by a mass meeting as part of the nationwide protest programme called by Left and secular parties for an effective Lokpal Bill. Apart from Agartala, protest programmes were organised all over the state.

In Agartala, the protest march got under way from the Children's Park. The slogan shouting march was led by CPI(M) state committee secretary Bijan Dhar, state secretariat member Manik Dey, Narayan Kar, Forward Block state president Brajagopal Roy and other Left Front leaders.

After the march a mass meeting was organised at Paradise Chowmohoni. Addressing the gathering Bijan Dhar vehemently attacked the UPA government for the gigantic scams unfolding during its term in the office. He asserted that the power to enact laws is with the parliament and its right must not be challenged by anyone. The present Lokpal Bill placed in the parliament by the government is a toothless one. He reiterated the Left demand for passing of an effective Lokpal Bill in parliament that would bring the prime minister also under its ambit. He underlined that the main source of corruption lies with the neo-liberal economic policies being pursued by successive governments. He gave a call for popular mass struggles to root out corruption in the country. CPI state secretary Prashanta Kapali, CPI(M) central committee member Rama Das and other Left Front leaders also addressed the meeting.

IN AP

The four Left parties and Telugu Desam party held joint protest actions across the state of Andhra Pradesh demanding passage of an effective and comprehensive Lokpal Bill to curb the rampant corruption in the country. Rallies, protest meetings, effigy burning, token hunger strikes etc were held in major cities and towns of the state in which thousands of people participated.

In Hyderabad, the protest meeting at Dharna chowk near Indira Park was addressed by CPI (M) state secretary B V Raghavulu, CPI state secretary K Narayana, TDP Polit Bureau member Devender Goud and leaders of leaders of RSP and Forward Block.

Raghavulu called upon the government to hold talks with Anna Hazare and resolve the crisis. Lambasting the government for refusing to bring the PM under the purview of the Bill, he said without doing this the Bill would be useless. In this context he held the prime minister Manmohan Singh responsible for the 2G and KG basin gas scams as he chose to ignore the written warnings of Left MPs in this regard.

Raghavulu also underlined that mere Lokpal Bill would not stop corruption as the roots of corruption lay in the corporate-politician-bureaucrat nexus. That nexus must be shattered by a comprehensive reforms in electoral and judicial sectors along with unearthing of black money in the country. He called upon people to continue this struggle and make it more broadbased to achieve this goal.

In Vijayawada a huge rally was taken by the Left parties and TDP to mark their protest against central government's dillydallying on bringing an effective comprehensive Lokpal Bill.

IN TN

ACTIVISTS of CPI (M), CPI and AIFB staged protests across Tamilnadu demanding the central government to enact a comprehensive and effective Lokpal Bill. This agitation was part of the nationwide call given by nine parties. Thousands of people took part in the agitation.

Raising slogans against the central government, the protestors faulted the central government had failed to act decisively against corruption, which was rampant during the United Progressive Alliance regime. The protestors said that in spite of nation-wide agitations demanding tough action against corruption, the UPA government was not listening to the popular demand.

At Chennai, CPI (M) state secretary G Ramakrishnan, CPI state secretary T Pandian, and AIFB MLA P V Kathiravan addressed the protestors. Protests were also held at Madurai, Coimbatore, Tiruchi, Thirunelveli, Nagarcoil , Theni, Erode, Salem and other parts in the state.

IN PUDHUCHERRY

Left parties in Puducherry staged a protest-cum-demonstration against corruption opposite the Head Post Office. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Forward Block joined hands to stage this protest.

Secretary of Pradesh committee of CPI (M) V Perumal, Tamilnadu state committee member T Murugan, secretary of local CPI unit N Kalainathan and national council member of CPI R Viswanathan participated in the protest.

IN ORISSA

AS per the national level call of the Left and non-Congress secular parties, a joint dharna programme was organised by CPI(M), CPI and Forward Bloc in front of Orissa Raj Bhawan at Bhubaneswar on August 23 demanding passage of an effective Lokpal Bill and other corrective measures to check rampant corruption.

Addressing the dharna, CPI (M) Orissa state secretary Janardan Pati said it is the neo-liberal economic policy regime that has spread corruption to every walk of life and huge scandals are occurring one after another. The nexus between politicians, bureaucratic and corporate houses has become strong under this policy regime. With people from all walks of life becoming victims to this corruption, they are yearning for a strong and effective Lokpal Bill to check this rampant corruption. The response to Anna Hazare’s campaign is a reflection of this yearning. But unfortunately the UPA-II government at the centre has utilised police force to suppress the voice of the people.

Others who spoke in the dharna included Dibakar Nayak, CPI state secretary, Forward Bloc state secretary Santosh Mitra, CPI (M) state leaders Sivaji Patnaik, Santosh Das, Ali Kishore Patnaik, Dusmanta Das, Sisir Hui and Puspha Dash. Later a delegation met the governor and handed over a memorandum.

Courtesy: People’s Democracy

FOR AN EFFECTIVE LOKPAL: GOVERNMENT HAS TO RESPOND - Prakash Karat

THE hunger strike launched by Anna Hazare in Delhi has led to an outpouring of support from all over the country. The agitation for a Jan Lokpal Bill has found support predominantly from the urban middle classes and a substantial section of youth belonging to this strata. There is no doubt that since the first hunger strike launched by Anna Hazare in April, the anti-corruption movement has gained momentum.

The attitude of the UPA government and its failure to tackle corruption has fuelled widespread anger. Firstly, the UPA government is seen as complicit in corruption. This has been the most corrupt government in the history of independent India. The paradox of a “clean prime minister” heading such a government has sunk into the consciousness of the urban middle classes. This is the very constituency which had been singing the praises of Manmohan Singh – a reformer who was clean and whose integrity was unquestioned.

The manner in which the ministers in the government defended the corrupt practices indulged in, in the 2G spectrum allocation, stating that there was zero loss of revenue for the government confirmed the fears of many that this government steeped in corruption cannot take any meaningful action. In all the cases – whether it be the 2G or the Commonwealth Games – it has been agencies external to the government – the Supreme Court, or, the CAG which spurred the CBI into action to investigate and to prosecute the guilty.

The problem has been compounded by the government introducing a Lokpal Bill which seeks to carry on with the earlier arrangement of the vigilance and investigation agencies. The prime minister is excluded from the purview of the Lokpal. The method of appointment of the Lokpal will not make it an independent authority. The Lokpal set up by this Bill would be ineffective and unable to independently act against the higher echelons in the government, or, the big business-ruling politician-bureaucratic nexus.

Secondly, the Congress party leadership has been put in the dock for the manner in which Anna Hazare and his colleagues were arrested on the morning of August 16 before they began the hunger strike. The symbolism of a corrupt government putting an anti-corruption crusader in Tihar Jail was not lost on the people. The brazen attack on the democratic rights of citizens to protest peacefully isolated the government among the people and inside parliament. The ruling party decries the Hazare-led movement as an attack on parliament and democratic institutions. They claimed that since the government has introduced a Bill in parliament, any agitation against it is an attack on parliament. This is specious reasoning. Political parties and citizen’s organisations have the right to oppose and agitate against any Bill introduced in parliament. The Left parties and trade unions have opposed many Bills which are anti-working class and organised protest actions and struggles against them. Strikes have taken place against proposed legislation which seeks to liberalise the financial sector – the insurance, banks etc.

Even the Congress party opposed the Prevention of Terrorism (POTA) Bill which was introduced in parliament in 2002 by the BJP-led government. Subsequently it continued to oppose it even after it was enacted as a law and demanded its withdrawal.

FOUNTAINHEAD OF CORRUPTION

Corruption has become a major issue and people are increasingly becoming conscious and determined to fight it. This is welcome. But there is need for a proper understanding of what is the cause for this rampant corruption which has affected all spheres of public life. The CPI(M) has set out its understanding of the present malaise of corruption, the causes and the effects.

In the last two decades, with the advent of liberalisation and the neo-liberal policies, high level corruption has become institutionalised. The neo-liberal regime has led to an exponential rise in corruption. Much of this corruption stems from the big business-ruling politician-bureaucratic nexus which has been established. We have seen how, in the seven years of the UPA government and the earlier six years of the NDA government, policy making has been suborned to serve the interests of big business; how privatisation and the loot of natural resources are facilitated by this nexus in operation; how the UPA government panders to big business – Indian and foreign – by putting in place policies and mechanisms to facilitate the transfer of resources like land, minerals, natural gas etc to business barons. The neo-liberal regime has affected the political system with big capital holding sway. Increasingly, politics is being converted into a business and business is conducted through politics.

The fight against high level corruption, therefore, requires a multi-pronged effort. There has to be an effective Lokpal authority; there has to be electoral reforms to curb money power for politics; there has to be a separate mechanism to curb corruption in the higher judiciary through a separate legislation; there has to be firm measures to unearth black money and crack down on the persons who have stashed away illegal money abroad in tax havens. Above all, the features of the neo-liberal regime, which encourage accumulation of capital through corrupt means and facilitate the loot of natural resources by big business, should be ended.

The main source of support for the Hazare-led movement is the urban middle class. The better off amongst them were supporters of the liberalisation policies and reforms ushered in by the Manmohan Singh government. Now plagued with corruption, they want a messiah to get rid of corruption which constantly affects their daily life. They would like corruption to end while maintaining the economic regime which has conferred benefits on them. Hence they are unable to see the organic link between the neo-liberal policies and the corruption that they have engendered.

The middle class propensity to be anti-political, to blame all politicians and to hold parliament in contempt are all on display in the Anna Hazare movement. The constant harping against all political parties and the setting of unilateral deadlines for parliament to act have raised apprehensions about their intent and commitment to democratic values. This has only detracted from the rightness of the cause and the popular support it has evoked.

There is legitimate anger against the plutocracy that has come to dominate the political system. But this plutocracy and the corrupt nexus cannot be fought by targeting political parties and concentrating fire only on the petty corruption that citizens face in their daily life. Given the amorphous nature of the movement gathered around Anna Hazare, the rightwing forces, including the corporate media, seek to support and direct the movement away from the focus on the fountainhead of corruption. There is a constant masking of the real causes of corruption in society. In a recent poll conducted by the Centre for the Study of Development Societies published in The Hindu, to a question `who is the most corrupt’, among those surveyed, 32 per cent said government employees were the most corrupt; 43 per cent said elected representatives were the most corrupt; and only three per cent thought businessmen and industrialists were the most corrupt. This is the dominant opinion among the middle classes.

In every major corruption scandal in the recent period, there was big business, or, corporates involved in the act of corrupting public servants – whether they are ministers, or, civil servants. In the 2G spectrum case, the Commonwealth Games, the KG gas basin contract and so on – in each of these cases the hidden hand of big business exists. The government Lokpal Bill does not address this issue at all. The Jan Lokpal Bill at least has clauses providing for cancellation of contracts with business enterprises that are found to be illegally obtained. But the thrust of the anti-corruption movement, by and large, misses this main factor.

BRING A FRESH BILL

The CPI (M) and the Left will continue to campaign for a set of measures to combat corruption. Along with the Lokpal Bill, there has to be a judicial accountability legislation which will cover the setting up of both a National Judicial Commission for the appointment of judges and a body to enquire into charges of corruption. The Left parties will continue the fight against the privatisation drive which seeks to handover public assets and resources to big business.

While a set of measures have to be taken to tackle the problem of corruption, at present, the issue is the setting up of a strong Lokpal authority. The government Lokpal Bill has been rejected by large sections of the people; it is not acceptable to most of the opposition parties. In such a situation, the government should retract from its stand.

After eight days of the fast by Anna Hazare, the government has bowed down to public pressure and initiated talks with the representatives of the Hazare group. This is a welcome development. Hopefully this will lead to a fresh or modified bill which can pave the way for an effective Lokpal.

Courtesy: People’s Democracy