Rs. 15 - Irtsa.net

January 2012
that would have put the lokpal beyond any facile
tinkering, they were something of which one
could say ‘Nothing less is deserved by the people
of India; and nothing else can be expected by
representatives of the world’s largest
democracy’.
But the spectacle of the Bill collapsing in the
Rajya Sabha under the weight of polemics and
worse, is a huge disappointment; in fact, it is a
disillusionment.
Here was a golden opportunity for Parliament
to rise to the occasion, to equal the people’s
expectations of it—squandered.
There was a great deal of posturing in the
House on Thursday. There was a great deal of
offending and defending. The past was raked
up, intentions were questioned, old wounds
opened, new ones inflicted.
But the whole thing – the debating of the Bill’s
clauses, the disputing of its motives, the rubbishing
of the Anna Hazare campaign, the valourising of
Parliament’s legislative suprem­acy, all of that
seemed to flux into a common crucible – an
acknowledgment of the need for a lokpal. No one,
except Ram Vilas Paswan asked, in all honesty,
if we really need a lokpal. Barring that, the need
for a lokpal was as much of ‘a given’ as the need
for checking corruption.
So, what happened ?
There will never be a satisfactory or
convincing answer to that question.
The puzzlement and utter dejection writ on
the earnest face of its chairman, and our Vice-
President, the good and high-minded Hamid
Ansari, was, at that moment, the face of India.
What is important now and vital, in fact, as
much to the future of parliamentary credibility as
to that of civil society-powered popular
campaigns is that:
• The Rajya Sabha’s failure to pass the Bill
be taken as a reverse, but not an irreversible
defeat. The momentum for giving the nation
a lokpal not be allowed to slow down.
BHARAT PENSIONER
• The campaign be given, by the campaign
leaders, not ‘more of the same’, but a gearshift
into a fresh powering that takes the
campaign into (a) a heightened awareness
generation and (b) negotiation with MPs from
all parties, without mixing up its high-minded
objective with electoral misadventures. Trying
to telescope the lokpal campaign with UP’s
electoral fortunes will be like forcing a rainbow
into a dust-storm.
• The campaign be taken by the ruling political
combination into a working session with other
parliamentary parties in a man­ner that
ensures its passage in the next session of
Parliament.
No one has doubted or disputed Parliament’s
prerogative to legislate transformationally. No
one should have to doubt its desire to do so with
sincerity. No one has doubted or disputed Team
Anna’s prerogative to campaign inspirationally.
No one should have to doubt its wisdom to
do so with patience.
Gopalkrishna Gandhi is a former
administrator, diplomat and governor
The views expressed by the author are personal
(Contd. from p.20)
RAINBOW’S END
4. In veiw of the foregoing, and considering the
advantages of disbursement of pension through
CPPCs to all the stake holders, your are advised
to establish / operationalise the Centralised Pension
Processing Cenrtres (CPPCs) and implement the
above mentioned pensioner - friendly measures
at the earlist in your bank.
RABINDRANATH TAGORE
The butterfly counts not months but moments
and has time enough.
Time is a wealth of change, but the clock in its
parody makes it mere change and no wealth.
Let your life dance on the edges of Time like
dew on the tip of a leaf.
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