I have been watching the events across lokpal bill for quite some time now and I believe a lot of people like me were also observing through the same process. And today at the end, a so called “strong” lokpal bill was passed by loksabha.
I must say not matter what happened in the end, this was the most entertaining daily soap I saw on news channels in my entire life. Also if I am not wrong, loksabha channel would have its heighest TRP’s now. Prasar bharti (The organization responsible for loksabha channel) could have made few crores by selling pepsi and coke etc advertisements in between the parliament session.
The most interesting thing about the whole series was that each and every political party repeatedly said they want a “strong” lokpal bill, but each and every one of them tried against this and in my opinion BJP was to blame as much as congress is for the lame and ineffective lokpal delivered by the so called representatives of the people. Government made a bad and toothless bill ,BJP said that its tootless and they will not vote for it and BJP at the end killed the only and I repeat it again for the clarity sake ONLY good thing about the bill which was the constitutional amendment for the lokayuktas in the states.
The best part of all this is that I always read in books and watched in movies what kind of dirty politics is being done, but during the whole time the whole nation saw that kind of thing happening on there television screen. The way things were tried by the government I felt ashamed that my family voted for that party. The comments and the standard of arguments were so low that many times I had to switch off the television because I didn’t want to see that degradation in the parliamentary democracy.
Government tried every possible way to prove that the people who are raising the issue of corruption are
1. They are themselves corrupt
2. They Politically motivated
3. They Un-reasonable
Note: here "They" stands for Mr. hazare and team
First of all I have not participated in any movement by Mr. Anna Hazare, But I do have great respect for him and his team. It will also be wrong to say that I totally agree with their “Jan lokpal Bill”, considering that I haven’t read it fully even till now. Also I do not beleave that passing a bill will remove corruption from india although I do beleave that having a strong lokpal bill will help making india corruption free.
But I have problem with the way government has handled it and their the arguments they gave, which looks more to tarnish the image of the people behind the protest then the subject of protest ( lokpal bill) .
Government spent its most of the time saying NO to Mr. Hazare then it spent in listening to their arguments. And as per governments points are concerned
1. They are themselves corrupt :
Well what I can say on that. Government has created such an ideal environment for corruption that it can very much said that today it’s much easier to be corrupt than being a honest man. What can I say about a government whose previous minister (and by previous I don’t mean far long back) stepped down just because his quarters in Tihar jail was calling him, who has been in Tihar jail approximately from the time he left the ministry. Whose home minister is given clean chit by CBI (By the way in today’s INDIA CBI is fully controlled by the PM) says no to file a case against him and courts says why not. And has numerous cases pending against other stake holders in government.
If they are saying that Mr. Hazare is a thug or let’s say corrupt we should obviously take that into account. Who would know better than them about who is corrupt ot not. there is a saying in hindi "chor chor mosere bhai"
My point is, let’s assume Mr. Hazare and his team is corrupt, throw them into prison now, or for that matter of sake in future. I don’t mind that but it still doesn’t prove why, what they were saying is not a good suggestion. Let’s say tomorrow Mr. A Raja comes back and say something very nice thing about corruption why can’t that be right. We may not be happy with his reputation but if what he is saying is correct then what’s wrong in accepting that.
2. They are politically motivated (or they have relation with RSS) :
Lets assume they do have relation with RSS or some other organization.
So what ??
What does that proves .
Let’s say they also have political motivation and Mr. Hazare has ambition to become prime Minister.
So what ???
Nearly all the MP’s present in parliament have ambition to become prime minister and absolutely all are politically motivated does that make everything they do to be wrong?
Why does it matters the person raising the issue has X affiliation or Y affiliation if his facts and suggestions are good.
Why being politically motivated means wrong. And if that’s true whole parliament is full of wrong people.
Lest assume Mr. Hazaare has hidden agenda to become PM and he is not disclosing it now. Even then I can t understand how his suggestions are supposed to be unacceptable.
3 . They are un-reasonable:
Well me and for that matter of fact whole India saw how un-reasonable government have been. I do agree that at some points Mr. Hazaare and his team has been un reasonable but most of the times I saw nothing but politics in governments tone. It would have been a great feeling to see politics and process to make lokpal effective coming with each other, but it turned out only the political keep on saying only one thing “we support strong lokpal” and did nothing but politics on the issue.
It turned out to be one of the dirtiest episode of the history of Indian parliament as far as my knowledge is concerned (which I know is very limited).
Role of opposition:
I was a decent supporter of BJP in Mr. Atal bihari Vajpayee’s time and I shifted to its strong opposition after Godhra riots . I believe that the fundamentals of this party has been put into wrong bases and it is trying to get in power with wrong reasons.
But I was very relieved when I saw Mr. Arun jety’s speech in parliament regarding the lokpal Bil. I thought BJP actually wanted to pass a effective jan lokpal bill. But the way BJP has overtime changed its position, took me by surprise.
The whole problem is, BJP did as much politics it could do and at the end didn’t deliver what they could have, If they would have been comitted. I am not sure but I will not be shocked if there would have been nderstanding between BJP and congress regarding not allowing to pass the constitutional amendment on lokayukta in sates.
Interesting thing is, BJP raise very good doubts on the issue and there was only one objection which was baseless and was against the effective lokpal bill.
Interestingly that was the only objection from BJP which was stayed up. Every good suggestion went down.
In a way I can say BJP played a constructive role in making a toothless lookpal bill possible.
Standard of debate in parliament:
One thing I couldn’t help noticing while watching the parliamentary debate was the standard of the debate. Opposition will say something and the government side will say "you do not have right to say this because you did same thing when you were in government" then opposition will say "you cant say that because you have done this wrong". For example BJP can’t talk about riots because congress says BJP is responsible for Gujrat riots, congress can’t speak about it because Gujrat riots because BJP thinks congress is responsible for ant-sikh riots.
So tell me please please please who will talk about them.
The standard of debate is so low in parliament that in lormal life even normal people do not go that low.
What’s my worry :
What worries me is whom should I vote to?
Should I vote to a government who plays dirty tricks and helps its ministers make fortune of their life time while in office.
Or should I vote to a party responsible for literally trying to use religion for politics. And who played a very active role in making as much ineffective lokpal bill as possible.
