6.00 pm Cultural Program - India-Link.org

current Jan Lokpal bill, which is an improvement over the
essentially “toothless” Lokpal bill that protected high
officials, is designed to “effectively deter corruption,
redress grievances of citizens, and protect whistle-blowers.
The bill would create an independent ombudsman body
called the Lokpal. It would be empowered to register and
investigate complaints of corruption against politicians
and bureaucrats without prior government approval.” The
bill provides for eral accountability by setting up time
limits for final action and penalizing the corrupt officials
for the damage they caused through their actions. The bill
has provisions to identify honest people through judiciary,
and people. I believe that when combined with the “Right
to Information Act of 2005,” which guarantees that all
information in government records will have to be shared
upon request, the Jan Lokpal bill has strong potential for
reducing corruption in India.
The million dollar question is: Will it work? Will
Anna’s movement be ultimately successful? I do not know
answer to that. I am pessimistic about long term success
of the movement. But I am cautiously optimistic in short
term. Maybe, Anna and the Indian people can find 500
honest people to staff the Lokpal and Lokayukta (state
representative of Lokpal) offices. But there is a tendency
in India for people in power to abuse it and get corrupt…
we will need a lokpal over lokpal … a hierarchy of lokpals
to make sure that the lokpals stay honest and accountable.
That is where I get pessimistic. Yet, we can’t take away
Anna’s credit to awaken Indian people to the possibility
of fighting corruption. But we will need his watchful eye to
keep the movement going. In the short term it does look
promising. Of course, it still depends on our constantly
finding honest, selfless people to staff lokpal institutions.
That is a tall order. I hope Anna’s two fasts at 73 will not
go waste! Good luck, India. �
INDIA LINK, 2011 23