Before taking sides on the Lokpal issue, let’s take a look at the events that has led us to this point. A bill which was initially passed in 1969 and failed to become a law in 9 other occasions, is the crux of the issue. Members of the civil society under the leadership of Anna Hazare is trying to create a ‘new anti-corruption watch-dog’ with powers to investigate any person including the Prime Minister of India. The Congress party and the PMO are trying to introduce their own version which will ‘not be an absolute authority’ & will have limited powers. The crux of the problem is the difference of view of the members of the civil society and the government. The lack of trust, arising from inability of successive governments over the years to stem corruption has become the prime driver for the civil movement. The media seems to be running another ‘Peepli live’ show in projecting this movement as a crusade against corruption and the Jan Lok Pal bill to be the solution to the corruption menace.
One of the most famous Japanese method to find out a solution to an engineering problem is called ’5 Why?’ method. The process is quite simple. It involves questioning the problem about 5 times to arrive at the Root Cause of the problem. If the Root Cause Analysis method is used for this problem, it would help us in understanding the issue better.
Problem: Corruption in India has crept into every section of the society. India ranked 87th out of 178 countries.
1) Why – Paying a bribe is a way to get past a law or to get things done
2) Why – Enforcement of law and order is not strict / the processes involved in handling public money are not transparent /
3) Why – The government and its institutions are under the control of people who hold power and money which are being used for personal gains
4) Why – The judiciary and the Police are not effective in enforcing law and order.
5) Why – Sections of Judiciary and Police – the watch-dogs – work under the influence of the powerful elite / are corrupt
The members of the Civil society and media needs to be lauded for bringing the focus of corruption to the spotlight. However, they seem to have overlooked the means to root out the corruption. The watch dogs are ineffective and inadequate in providing justice and enforcing the rule of law. This may not change just by introducing another watch dog. The same issues of corruption & inefficiency can afflict the Lok Pal System. If the system can work by creating another institution, it should have worked in the first place, by simple tweaking of the existing system. I am not an expert in the constitution. But I believe, we have enough laws to prosecute persons who violate them. I think, the problem so far has not been the need for a new law or a watch-dog, but on how well we implement existing laws.
Successive governments have to be blamed for such an ineffective judiciary. Transparency in all the processes, effective vigilance and strict policing can help in addressing corruption. Asset declarations by all government employees, effective vigilance to evaluate & ensure the declarations are correct and measures to ensure that sweeping powers reside with vigilance and judiciary to punish those who are corrupt, is the only way to tackle this menace.
However, the infrastructure we have, seems to be undermining our efforts in effective enforcement of our laws. Poor Police-People ratio and Judge-People ratios have significantly burdened and over stretched our existing infrastructure. According to UN norm, there must be at least 220 officers per 100,000 people, but an estimate puts it at 130 and we are short of about 600,000 policemen. The Judge per million people is about 14 in India and is way below that of developed countries (107 in US,75 in Canada). Even the sanctioned strength of police and judges are not available and the government seem least bothered about the same.
The media seem to be playing a role in promoting this as a fight between the Civil society and the government. A steady stream of updates from Delhi and the fasting has been promoted by sections of media as a ‘second independence movement’. Every other issue in India at the moment seem to be secondary. The media seem to sensationalize every single event associated with the Jan Lok Pal bill and are working overtime to prove that its depiction in the movie ‘Peepli live’ was absolutely correct.
If the government wants to solve the deadlock and address this issue, it has to act to increase transparency and address infrastructure issues, with the help of the Civil society. Introducing another law or a watch dog cannot be the solution as there is no one to watch over the watchdog.
