Watching the debate on the Lokpal bill there are so many thoughts running through my head. There are so many strands in the campaign for this bill and the implications of this campaign and the bill are far reaching.
While the scale and the intensity of the campaign has taken many commentators by surprise, I have been expecting it to come for some time now and I am actually disappointed by the scale and the intensity. The campaign has been mostly run by the middle class in delhi and in some state capitals. It hasnt caught the imagination in the districts and other state capitals and even the media seems to me has been caught a little by surprise and since then has been playing catchup. But the group that has been completely taken by surprise has been the parliament which has gone from trumpeting the , so called, supremacy of the parliament to now agreeing to most of Anna’s demands.
This campaign has been a long time coming in so many different ways. My countrymen have a voiciferous opinion on everything from their neighbours’ sex lives to food to the form of our cricket team. But one thing that doesn’t get voiced enough, in the worlds largest democracy, is the quality of politics and the politicians that represent them in the various state and central bodies. I have had very few frank discussions on our local members of parliament because no one is interested. It was seen as a lost cause. This clearly sat at odds with the otherwise passionate discussions on everything else. That along with the fact the young voters seem completely at odds with a parliament that doesnt seem to represent their interests or even claim to represent their interests. The latter is an important point in politics – the MPs in India couldnt even be bothered to be seen to be representing their entire consituency. To add to the mix, have been the recent spate of corruption scandals and while there was a general feeling among the public at large that something needed to be done, the politicans didnt seem that concerned. Clearly something had to give, I only wonder why has it taken so long and why hasn’t there been an even bigger explosion.
Along with the MPs repeatedly emphasising the supremacy of the parliament, some commentators have also called the means of Anna unconstitutional. In my mind, apart from some tactical errors on behalf of team Anna, this has been a very constitutional campaign. Infact, this campaign has kept the constitution alive from other more firebrand means. Had this campaign not come along at this time, the pressure would have continued to build and from then on it would have been a hope, skip and a jump to an open rebellion. I read one scary commentary comparing the state of affairs to Weimar Germany. If the MPs refuse to listen to what their constituents want, if they refuse to understand the pulse of the nation it is completely allright for someone to go on a fast and demand that MPs take note. Yes going on a fast is a risky move as someone could go on a counter-fast or someone could go on a fast for all the wrong reasons, but that is a risk that the country faces anyway with a weak and aloof parliament. How else between the 5 years does the country make the parliament take note ?
I through this campaign was hoping for a strong competition between the parliament and team anna for the soul of the average Indian voter. Once the parliament realised that this is bigger than it earlier thought, they should have taken the initiative as the democratic and rightful representatives of the people and said to team anna we know what our people want because we are listening to them and since we have the power to make the law anyway we don’t need you anymore. There could have been an open debate about the merits and demerits of the various provisions, the MPs could have started mass contact campaigns or just listended to their consitutents who were sitting with team Anna. As in the MP gets their flock back and regains the initiative, passes the law and takes most of the credit if not all of it. But the Parliament went from denying to complete chaos to now complete surrender and agreeing to all of Anna’s demands. I am struggling to understand if the Parliament was wrong then and is it right now or both.
This has interesting implications for the future. I for one am very happy that the genie is out of the bottle and I hope that my countrymen do not go back to their day jobs thinking all is well with their country. All is not well and the parliament has been in a limbo for many years now. I look forward to every session of the parliament and look up the major bills for the session and at the end of the session there is nothing to show. It has now been demonstrated that the Parliament’s hand can be forced without it becoming unconstituional, that the MPs like to show off that they are the new emperors of India but when faced with a strong moral movement they back down completely and shamelessly and that there is now an option to that famous line ‘we are like this only and nothing will ever change’. I hope the Parliament also now understands why is it there and the people for the first time in the history of our democracy have been really empowered.
I feel I am sidestepping another big argument about the merits and demerits of the Lokpal bill. I see that as a small issue for two reasons – one, no bill is perfect as long as the system that produces and governs it is good the output can be changed and two, in the larger scheme of things and overzealous lokpal is hardly going to be the country’s worst problem. The country’s major problem is an ineffective parliament which doesn’t take its role seriously. For me the sight of my countrymen trooping out for a political reason (outside of an election) is the success story which is even bigger than our growth story. I hope this is the beginning of a new India where the politicians are held accountable by the voters.
Jai Hind.
