Lokpal what???!!!

Corruption and Social Protest - A View on Recent Happenings in India
By Arindam Das

Corruption in India - a by-product of economic growth?

The world has been keenly observing the recent public protests in Egypt, Libya and other middle-eastern countries. The majority of the western observers have appreciated the devolution of absolute power wielded by the people in establishment over a long time.

Around the same time India, the largest democratic country in the world is also experiencing a unique form of protests against corruption. One possible reason why these are going unnoticed by the international media is that these movements in India are non-violent and though some of these involve participation from a large number of people, they may not be classified as mass movement, considering the huge population of this country.

Social justice, human rights, freedom of expression, tolerance for divergent viewpoints - these are some features that Indian democracy is proud of when similar practices in its neighboring countries are almost non-existent. Unfortunately, in this thriving democracy corruption has become a part of almost every aspect of life - not just for petty businessmen to make a few extra bucks or for the lower-level officials to accept "speed money" to pass a file.

With the economic liberalization that started in early 1990s we have seen a lot of money, quite unthinkable twenty years ago coming in various forms of investments in the country. The idea, according to the economists and financial pundits was to open up Indian economy and let it grow at about 10% every year and thereby benefit the country and countrymen. However, the sceptics would say that the liberalization and growth story was meant to leverage India's resources (natural and people) and convert Indians to a consumerist society - create a billion of hungry consumers who are ready to work for the MNCs and ready to consume all products from the MNCs - essentially, create wealth for the MNCs.

Now, Indian businessmen were no less shrewd and they spotted opportunities in this liberalization journey - to plunder the nation and create wealth for themselves as well. Over past twenty years, all Indian business houses have grown in wealth while more and more MNCs have used India as resource base as well as consumer base. But, if everyone was benefiting, then who was losing? Well, the environment that was rich with natural resources and the poor people, who only got poorer in the process.

Now, there are other by-products of this mega growth story - the most important of them is rampant corruption. Though India claims to have a rich heritage and scriptures that are several thousand years old, Indians have never claimed to be morally superior to people from other parts of world - well, that is a little bit of honesty from Indians. We have always seen that people in power and people with money take undue advantage but with the huge volume of business transactions and rising economy, corruption took newer heights - where unbelievably large sums changed hands for favors that would result in equally unbelievable, windfall profits or establish monopoly in business.

The common man stood and watched the blatant manipulations - the brazen attitude of industrialists and businessmen and the hand-in-glove politicians and bureaucrats who were party to this grand Indian loot. Land was taken away from the poor in the name of infrastructure development or setting up industries without compensation or rehabilitation. Rules were flouted or bent to allow businesses to run that caused irreparable damage to the environment and human life. Tax breaks and special economic zones were set up to allow more profit for businesses and no benefit to the common people. All the while, the establishment, the media and the upper echelons of society rejoiced that Indian economy was growing.

The rise of Anna Hazare and the Civil Society

The politicians across party lines over the years became brazen about their administrative decisions that benefited their kith and kin. It was happening not only at the central level but also at each of the states. It became obvious that crony capitalism was spreading its tentacles across the country. Almost every large initiative of all the governments in past ten years smacked of corruption, kickback and laundering public money.

Though there were vigilance commissioners, many of them were also found to be tainted; several senior representatives of judiciary had allegations against them. The investigation bureaus were utilized to conduct inquiries to settle political scores. Media on its part was vocal about these but they kept on moving from one story to another and were more interested in raising their viewership than focusing on getting the system corrected.

Anna Hazare, a Gandhian who was engaged in social work for all his life decided to take this battle up. The prop he has used this time to fight against corruption is the Lokpal Bill, a bill that was supposed to have ombudsmen or Lokpal to receive complaints from the people about the functioning of the establishment, investigate the same and recommend remedies. The current Lokpal structure is a weak and skeletal structure and not all the states have adopted it. The proposal to have a stronger Lokpal has been subverted by the vested interests in the establishment for several years. Anna started off with a threat to the government that he would go on a hunger strike in Delhi if the government did not take Lokpal Bill seriously.

Initially, the government ignored the potential of such a threat for hunger strike. These things are accepted as a democratic form of raising an issue against government's policies or actions - serious or trivial. Moreover, in the past they had rarely caused any long-term significant damage to the credibility of the ruling party or the government - either the protestors accepted some verbal promises or they simply gave up.

Two things moved unpredictably in Anna's April 2011 fast at Delhi's Jantar Mantar. First, the way people of India voluntarily joined him. Anna was very particular about keeping his movement apolitical and did not allow anyone from political parties to join him at the dais - this definitely pleased the mass, as Indian public knew pretty well that all political parties were corrupt and probably, equally so. Of course, it was not true that none of these mass followers ever committed to corruption - sure, some of them might have paid bribes to speed up activities in government departments and many will not mind doing so in future to avoid delays or take undue advantage. However, all were interested in seeing some punitive action in mega-corruptions that people in power were involved in.

The second thing that put Anna in limelight was the media. The electronic media was initially ignoring Anna's protest but they soon sensed a story and possible rise in viewership because a large mass of people got too passionate with Anna's movement. Within a few days, the media went berserk putting the government at a loss of face about all the popularity that this 73-year old, 7th grade educated ex-army cook was getting.

Anna was also selective of his A team and it included people from different occupations with clean images. Nonetheless, the people in power did not desist from a smear campaign on them to bring Anna's movement down. However, that did not sway the common Indian for his faith in Anna or his people.

Very soon, the government realized that it would be best to engage with Anna and in a rare moment announced that a bill would be drafted along with Anna's team. This was a historic moment, as government was not required to directly involve the common person in framing of a bill.

The people of India rejoiced - they saw that someone with only principle and conviction could bring the mighty government to tow to his line. The media hailed Anna as the messiah. Obviously, the comparison with Mahatma Gandhi was there.

Well, that was not the end of the events.

Swami Ramdev, a yoga guru with rags to riches story and a mass following across the country as well as among the Indian communities across the world had been using his TV channel's evening program to talk about corruption and black money - the unaccountable money that some people (primarily politicians and businessmen) keep. He could see the potential of using similar hunger strike as a platform to fight for his focus area - eradication of black money. He decided to go on fast in June 1st week at Ramleela Maidan in Delhi.

The people in power wanted to be extra cautious this time and started engaging with Ramdev beforehand. They went to the extent of meeting him in person at the airport and offered him courtesy that is normally reserved for head of states. However, the game did not go well. Though Ramdev agreed in public that most of his demands were met, he went on with his fast along with his supporters as per original plan - irking the people in power. The endgame was brutal with police attack on the sleeping people and Ramdev was captured while he was trying to escape the police in the disguise of a woman. He was packed out of Delhi. Ramdev continued his fast from his ashram at Haridwar and broke it when his body gave up. Unfortunately, the net effect of Ramdev's fast was limited - with media and people no longer talking about him or his focus area - black money. Of course, he has been demonized by the people in power as the fake guru and there are now unnecessary inquiry on the wealth and functioning of his trust, the nationality of his assistant etc.

On the other side, though the government had agreed to bring Anna and his team to drafting committee, they created all sorts of obstacles to whatever Anna's team proposed about the scope of Lokpal Bill, selection of Lokpal and the process of Lokpal's functioning. After two months of deliberations, we now see a dejected Anna and his team blaming the stubbornness of the government to pass a Lokpal Bill that is weak and has limited scope. And, yes, he is preparing for another fast in August.

Summarizing, past three months have been miraculous for India's social justice system. While past one year has given India several mega corruptions involving politicians, bureaucrats, judiciary and industrialists, the past three months have given Indians some hope - from Anna and his team that people in absolute power also may have to sit up and correct themselves.

Note: The views in this article are author's own and they have nothing to do with any of the organizations the author is affiliated to.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Arindam_Das
http://EzineArticles.com/?Corruption-and-Social-Protest---A-View-on-Recent-Happenings-in-India&id=6374987