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Hazare Khwaishe

I do want to think of Anna as a force of good, I really do. An honest man who is able to inspire lakhs of people to come out on the streets in protest seems just the kind of leader I want to follow. Yet I fret. And suggest bravely, for free, that many things about the Lokpal Bill campaign make me deeply uncomfortable.

I've read the draft texts of both the government bill and the Jan Lokpal version, and I must say I do not find the government draft as unreasonable as is made out to be. I do not agree with some significant parts of it, but I have more differences with the Jan Lokpal than with the government version.

First, I dislike the process. Anna's fast is not a protest – it is an insistence on getting his way over others. He now wants bill passed (not just presented to parliament mind you – but passed) in a mere three weeks more; differing opinions be damned. Gandhi is known for his fasts, but he was protesting against an authority he had no way to participate in. Also, fasting was hardly the only thing Gandhi did – he also tirelessly worked to create a political movement and shape majority opinion – that was what finally overthrew the British. Anna has eschewed participation for obstinacy. He should be using his considerable crowdpull to get a movement started for people to become honest and stop paying bribes even at their own inconvenience (much like Gandhi persuaded a nation to boycott imported goods and stick to poorer alternatives). At the very least, he should convince parliamentarians to his version by threatening the biggest gun everyone in a democracy has access to – forcing people out of office at the ballot box.

Second, I'm uncomfortable with the Jan Lokpal's idea of a parallel system of prosecution. The Jan Lokpal bill draft allows for fairly severe punishments to be imposed without reference to courts (such seizure all property on the likelihood of prosecution, dismissal and unrestricted fines), and has no appeals process. Most disturbingly, for punishments not referred to court it is not obvious what the procedures for establishing guilt are, where the burden of proof lies or how the defendants can defend themselves. All geared to give everyone the warmfuzzies when directed against the deemed guilty, but these often have the nasty habit of coming back to nip the innocents or the merely morally suspect (remember Kenneth Starr?)

I also contend the notion that corruption is worse than (say) a decade ago – personal experience has almost entirely been the other way. Today, one is far more likely to get a gas connection, a passport, a train ticket without paying a single paisa in bribes (that's how I got all three recently) – something unheard of a decade ago. Even high level corruption is much harder to hide than before – notice Kalmadi's swift fall from grace.

I want a Lok Pal with a big reach and plenty of teeth, but I don't want to rethink via a backdoor a constitution that is not yet broken. I want much more debate than Anna wants to allow – we have lived with differing levels corruption for decades, some more months of debate is not going to destroy the country.

Instead of convincing us to become more honest and giving the honest a louder voice and moral high ground, Anna wants to frighten us with a bigger stick and less restraint on swinging it. Everyone, even the (mostly) honest, is afraid of a swinging stick; that, finally, is what makes me uncomfortable.

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