Sunday, June 19, 2011

Lokpal Bill - I may be against to it

There is a big discussion going on on whether the Prime Minister should be included in the jurisdiction of Lokpal or not. Dr.JP and Lok Satta are of opinion that, Prime Minister should not be included in the jurisdiction of Lokpal. The explanation can be read from here.

After this article is published, I got response from a person criticizing Lok Satta saying that, Lok Satta does not support Lokpal, and Congress and Lok Satta give same support to Lokpal. After reading his entire criticism, I started thinking about the entire Lokpal and felt like, this may be misused completely and lead india to undeveloped country from developing country.

If we take any successful entrepreneur, in their organization, there would be atleast 1% wastage of their money. The entrepreneur knows that, the money is getting wasted. But, instead of concentrating on reducing the wastage, he/she would spend his/her energy in improving the business by 100%. And, that is the correct option for the business. Some times, The head of the business also takes few decisions based on their strong gut feeling to improve the business, and they may not be able to give the reasons for that.

If the same thing happens in the government, the wastage of money is considered as corruption, and the strong gut feeling can be considered as favoring their relatives/friends etc. If a minister tries to get 100% more revenue instead of reducing the 1% wastage, that would give more value to the country. Since, it is government, that 1% wastage can be considered as corruption, and he may be prosecuted for that. If he does something by his gut feeling, that can be considered as favoring their friends/relatives etc., and he may be prosecuted for that as well.

From the way the "so called supporters" of jan lokpal bill are talking, they want all the people who are involved in any kind of corruption should be prosecuted and punished. If that happens, then all the ministers who are really working for the country would be prosecuted and punished.

We need to understand that, the country and it's sovereignty is the top most priority. If India is captured by another country, there is nothing more destructive than that. That's why, the Prime Minister has to be excluded from the Lokpal. Indira Gandhi has given the extra ordinary powers to the Prime Minister (herself) during the Emergency period. Eventhough, the next government (Morarji Desai) had revoked most of her policies brought during Emergency, still, they have not revoked the powers given to the Prime Minister with the reason that, for the national security and integrity, it is important that, the Prime Minister should have those powers.

After the country's sovereignty, next most important thing is the development of the people and the country. If people do not even have basic necessities, that cannot be considered as developed country. If the ministers are working for the development of the country, and these "so called" social workers are going to stop their work, because, there is some corruption in that, then India will never develop. It will become undeveloped country from developing country.

For those who follow the news regularly, few years back, few MPs were prosecuted and expelled, because, they had taken a bribe of around Rs.50,000. If an MP is going to be expelled for taking bribe of Rs.50,000, does not it mean that, somebody can spend Rs.5 crore, and get arrested half of the parliamentarians? Can anybody understand the state of the country, if that happens? India would be captured by another country. As simple as that. The "so called" social workers do not understand that, eventhough they are corrupted, still they are doing something for the country, if not for progressing, atleast for not falling down significantly? They do not understand the situation of the country, when the government does not work, or there is nobody to govern.

If we change the system, then we don't need to do anything for reducing the corruption. We should fight for changing the system, so that corruption cannot exist, and not by artificial means. The supporters of jan lokpal bill have completely forgotten that, they themselves elected those leaders. They neither have plans to elect good leaders nor contesting themselves in the elections to make corruption-less government. They elect corrupted leaders, and want to change them. Probably, they can do this thing better in movies rather than the real world.

If I were to support the Lokpal bill, I need a clause that, the corruption should be more than 5% of the total revenue for the project/deal. I don't think any of the present activists or supporters of jan lokpal would agree to that.

Related Links:
Jan Lokpal Bill - My Perspective
Anna Hazare - Other Perspective

7 comments:

  1. I think you should first make up your mind before you support or oppose the Lokpal bill, not dilly dally. The proposals by Hazare and team haven't changed since they started fasting. While it might be said that bringing the PM (not PMO!) under Lokpal could hinder the PM's role, if we do not bring the entire Parliament, MPs and cabinet then I see no point in having a Lokpal at all. Right now the only way one can start investigation in to an their wrong doing is when parliament proposes it, which as we have seen, how easy was that? Even consider the hypothetical situation when we are at war and all the MPs are being investigated by Lokpal, wouldn't the PM and the President be available to deal with the situation, along with the chiefs of the military? (Note that being investigated by Lokpal does not suspend the official from their position). And don't you worry about the sovergnity of the nation, we are no Pakistan. Even if the entire central govt. were to collapse, the President can still rule the nation till the next election is finished. If you ever were to figure out that all the MPs have corruption charges on them, do you rather want them to get out or continue further?

    I strongly believe the PM is at the top of the pyramid of corruption, having an honest person there will automatically fix the system down to a regular clerk.

    Even if Lokpal becomes a law, there is no guarantee that the Lokpal members will not be corrupt and that they undermine the whole thing. Isn't that why we are not confident of the existing agencies like CBI and police?

    Of course, as you mentioned, people electing proper leaders and they doing the right things is ideal (and hopefully a long shot). But we need these kind of laws till then to reduce the corruption.

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  2. President does not have any executive powers. If there is no PM, then the president has to appoint the Prime Minister for taking decisions, and he/she himself/herself cannot take any decisions for India.

    Manmohan Singh is very sincere politician.

    For everything else, the post has my opinions.

    I don't think I have ever changed my opinion on this. It is just that, I am giving different explanations.

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  3. According to congress spokesperson commonman,who is not elected,has no voice. He is out of frame once elected representative reaches Parliment/state assembly he is free to indulge in rrampart corruptio for example A.Raja/Kalmadi/Chavans&Deshmukhs, Reedys and lot many. Will someone please address this.

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  4. If the PM demonstrates the constitutional and moral propriety expected of him/her then there is no question of Lokpal looking into his activities at all. On the other hand, if there is enough compelling evidence against the PM for moral or constitutional impropriety, then Lokpal has every reason to look into his functioning.
    I don't think any one will argue against this.
    The scenario what every one is concerned with is investigation of PM by Lokpal with ulterior motives even when there is no impropriety by the PM. I am in total agreement with this situation and we need to have appropriate safeguards to handle such an eventuality in the Lokpal but that does not mean that PM should be completely removed from the ambit of Lokpal as the THIEF CAN NOT SUPERVISE HIMSELF!!
    If you read this interview, you will know how much of unconstitutional behavior has been exhibited by our constitutional pillars.

    http://ibnlive.in.com/news/keep-pm-higher-judiciary-out-of-lokpal-excji/162837-3.html

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  5. Please remember that we have taken the rule from British when there was no law to check the misdeeds of rulers. These rulers now are in the shape of Parliament /Legislatures which does not want to make any law to check their misdeeds. In case we citizens of India were continuously being taught that the law making is the prerogative of Parliament then who will make the law to check the misdeeds of Parliamentarians. Thus fortunately after 65 years of independence somebody have thought there should be a law to prescribe the independent authority to check the misdeeds of rulers that is Parliamentarians / Legislatures . This is the law which should have been made in the first session of the Parliament after independence, which have taken 65 years and yet to see the light of the day without any demonstration by the citizens of India . It is unfortunate that we have to resort demonstration to pass such a necessary law which is required to be passed without any hindrance . Moreover a trustee should not be accountable to his beneficiaries . In IPC, a man who misappropriates the money of a single person who is trustee for that , is liable to imprisonment for ten years and in some case for life. Think in a case a person who is trusted the money of whole nation consisting of 120 crores of people , what penalty he deserves . After all they are the custodians of money of the citizens of India. Whosoever thinks that he cannot be answerable to people for his misdeeds , whether that person should stand for elections. Moreover think for a while , we have a law that in case a citizen does not pay the tax, he is liable for penalty and imprisonment , what the people who are custodians of that money in case they misuse they have not even independent authority to check their misdeeds. What a fantastic rule which we have borrowed from British . We were salves of British now we are salves of elected representatives who are free to increase their salaries in Parliament and united like rock and does not want to make a law to check their misdeeds and they are solid united in that aspect also. Kindly it is a time to think and support without any party affiliations to save the country for the sack of our coming generations . Regards

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  6. I want only democracy. The one whom I elect, should be the top of everything. If you prefer dictatorship or anything else, that is your opinion, I don't like it.

    If somebody is voting for someone, it means, they are happy, if they rule us. If people are electing criminals and corrupted people, it means, people are happy under their rule. So, they deserve to rule us.

    If you think, they should not rule us, or you should have some independent body, then elect the members of that independent body for the parliament, rather than creating a separate entity.

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