‘Corrupt’ panel: Where is it headed?

The whole issue of dealing with corruption is getting tangled in unsavoury controversies. The fight against corruption will be so badly mutilated that is perpetuators wouldn’t know from which side they were hit. Riding high on the Jantar Mantar success, the civil activists will realise their folly after they will be forced to leave the battle ground by forces that are all-powerful and mean.
Given the political inclinations and the fierce opposition it has from the Congress party and the ministers, the committee will just end up becoming a place of drinking tea, exchanging pleasantries and getting good coverage on national television, if subsequent meetings are held.
And the manner in which the activists went around declaring war against the establishment and then sneaking in a weak draft, it appears that we are poised to lose the war on corruption.
The first sign of split emerged from within the dharna members. They started picking holes over naming the committee members. Baba Ramdev wanted Kiran Bedi, who herself didn’t want to be a part of the draft committee. But the more serious damage was because of the inclusion of father-son - Shanti Bhushan and Prashant – in the draft committee to frame Lokpall Bill.
Barely had Baba backed off that allegations against Anna started creeping up. One Hemant Patil from Pune went on the stage raking old charges against corruption. It was alleged that he was a crony of Maratha strongman and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. Not many paid credence to Patil’s charges cause he couldn’t defend himself on being a crony of Pawar. The less said about Pawar, the better.
Since the daft notification, one thing has been consistent – people mistrust against the Bhushans. They are said to be taking up causes of public interest. Nevertheless the father-son is facing intense heat.
And all this is partly because Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh couldn’t see that a very good organized campaign could surpass the socialist’s fancy.
Then to add substance to the charges of their intention, Shanti Bhushan’s conversations with ‘dalal’ Amar Singh (Congress MP Raj Babbar has termed Amar Singh as a dalal) and Mulayam Singh were the centre of attraction once again. The timing of the repeated leak was purportedly to embarrass Hazare and company and even the Bhushans. Anna Hazare is unnecessarily batted for lawyer Shanti Bhushan. Anna should have realised that Shanti Bhushan has been the law minister and knows the tricks of the trade.
In the tapped conversations, Amar Singh is fixing deals with industrialists, transferring judges and bureaucrats and even talking about the legs of Jaya Prada and actresses like Bipasha Basu expressing their desire to meet up with Singh after having met him only once.
Why should the taped conversations become a topic alongwith corruption? Is Amar Singh looking at getting ban on the explicit conversations? The point is that Amar Singh will always allege that the taped conversations are doctored. The point is that the 2006 phone calls of Amar Singh present a birds eye view on the way the corruption happens in the country.
Given the laws in the country, Amar Singh and Shanti Bhushan, if the tapes are found to be genuine, have never had to explain how they could fix postings of judges. Perhaps, given the legal power they enjoy, it is likely that the taped conversations are buried in court cases for a very long time.
In the end, the society members who launched the anti-corruption agitation between cricketing break, may end the stir and walk out with a dignified face. At present, the civil society committee members are on the backfoot.
They presented a diluted draft to the ministers. WHY? Will Anna managers explain why they cheated the nation by presented a different draft to the ministers? After circulating a draft of the Bill, they went to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and gave a changed version. Arvind Kejriwal claims that he is updating the versions on the internet after incorporating suggestions from the people. Is that how they are going to make laws in the country and fight corruption? Is he going to make laws for the people?
Given this kind of drafting and changing of law points, some very angry people are not going to appreciate personal ideas of this civil society group.
In all probability, many people are already moving the courts against the selection of committee members and choices before the Supreme Court could be limited. So even before June 30, we could have the courts intervening and staying the drafting, because the left out group of civil society members are going to argue on the manner of the selection of the five members.
Certainly this raises questions why are we going in for another government-appointed body or law when those implementing it will be the same class of people. Given the fierce opposition, the Hazare campaign has faced it doesn’t look that the committee will be able to see the June 30 deadline. Anna himself has come to realise that he may not be able to push for the Bill dateline of August 15. Will this exercise come to a naught?