By  S R Nair

With both Houses of Parliament on Saturday passed a resolution conveying the sense of the House on the Lokpal Bill on the three basic issues raised by Anna which demands inclusion of  Citizen’s Charter listing the duties of employees in a department and outlining punishment should those duties not be performed, extending  the anti-corruption watchdog’s jurisdiction to all Central  and State Government employees and establishment of Lokayukts by the State Governments in the proposed Lokpal Bill, Anna Hazare recalling his fast on Sunday 28^th August,2011 at 10. 20 am. The Government which appeared, at various point of time, inept  ranging through to utterly incompetent in its handling of the Anna’s movement – technically capitulated,  managed to regain some of its dignity with a series of eloquent statements in parliament and some of the most impassioned and articulate debate that house has seen in recent times. A much relieved Prime Minister was heard saying on one of the Television Channel “Parliament has spoken; the will of Parliament is will of the people,”

The resolution pledges the support of the both the houses for the creation of a new institution, the Lokpal, or Ombudsperson, Three demands of Anna for his jan lokpal, the people’s law, will now be incorporated into a law referred to the parliamentary standing committee for final drafting.

After nearly two weeks of political brinkmanship on the issue, where every political party attempted to gain political mileage out of the emerging situation also had a deeply polarizing effect, as evidenced by the fact that on one side, there were many people across the country who support Anna Hazare and begain to describe him as the champion in the fight against corruption  who finally made government pay attention to the issue corruption  there were others who, perhaps more, opinioned   his tactics as political distasteful, and were alarmed at the “blackmail” that attempted to subverted the power of parliament to pass laws.

For the last three days, senior government leaders have shuttled back and forth to meetings, attempting to meet a constantly-shifting set of demands of Team Anna., Team Anna, though failed to get the law adopted within a stipulated timeline, or the resolution adopted by a roll-call vote, had to be satisfied with the resolution which in most every other respect may be construed as a victory for the Anna camp. The parliamentary resolution perhaps is not a total victory for Team Anna, as Anna had began this fast saying it would end only when the bill was passed by the houses and became law.

Anna’s hunger strike galvanized a huge amount of popular support, especially among the middle class, which are frustrated group because of having to bribe to obtain basic services constantly. How could Anna muster such support?  Obviously for the reason that the Corruption was an inclusive issue and people cutting across religion and political affiliations were moved by a very constructive electronic media. It would not be wrong to say that the movement gather pace and could inject enthuse among the common people was for the reason that the movement was very well branded and marketed through a very aggressive media which were sometimes also giving insignificantly wrong interpretations on various issues like delay in response of the Government, handling of the issue etc  thereby creating political opportunity for political parties adding to the confusion.

The most important factor which probably missed the mind of every single speaker on television and the activists is the inclusion of a responsibility and a penalty on those who offer the graft or bribe also, because the giver is more a wrong doer than the taker. The implementation of the LOKPAL bill should not happen like a situation “Smoking in public place is an offence “  where smoking in public place is prohibited and those caught would be penalized whereas there is no ban on selling cigarettes in public place.

Hence one should take the following pledge:

1)     I realize that my country is being destroyed by my offering or accepting bribe  and that I shall not do the same.

2)     I will follow my moral compass. I will do what is morally and ethically right, irrespective of whether someone is watching or not.

3)     I will not be a passive spectator. I will participate in democracy, and help nurture it.

Anna’s popularity  surged every passing day with the non-stop 24×7 Television Channel ‘s Coverage. While accepting that this was an important issue, it is sad to note that Civil Society Activists and TV channels sometimes appears to be select issues keeping in mind the possibility of the issue generating publicity and  handsome TRP. There are various issues like malnutrition, farmers suicide, atrocities against women and children, child labour, domestic help issues, delay in payment of compensation to victims of natural calamities, victims of terror etc which no Civil Society Member or Electronic media, is interested and this is really a worry some factor. It is in the hand of the electronic media to create more and more Anna Hazare’s as it is simply evident that our elected representatives required someone like Anna Hazare to make them aware of their duties and responsibilities towards their masters- i.e. the JAN- the people.

May good sense prevail upon the elected representatives of the people of India and let them see to it that they do not create a situation where many more Anna Hazare would be born!

Jai Hind.