IPAB's take on current anti-corruption agitations
• Emotions have now reached boiling point around the issue of corruption. The outpouring of support for Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev are propelled by the deep frustration that millions of Indians feel about corruption. It is an indication of how raw the emotions are, and how impotent people are feeling. •Ipaidabribe.com fully supports what these movements stand for. But we want this movement to be democratic. We have shown our undiluted support by taking part in protest marches, engaging in discussions and public meetings, through interviews and sound bytes to support the cause, put up information and links on our site and exhorted other citizens to lend their support. • We are deeply concerned about the break-up of Baba Ramdev’s fast by the government. It is an unwarranted use of force against an act of peaceful protest. • In the aftermath of the attack, the boycott by civil society representatives of the meeting of the Joint Committee for drafting the Lokpal bill is very worrying. • We must continue to work with the government if we have to get a Lokpal Act. No provocation should deviate us from this path. A stalemate is in nobody’s interest. •Ipaidabribe.com appeals to Anna Hazare and civil society representatives on the Joint Committee to resume their discussions and negotiations with the government. Much ground has been covered in the meetings held so far. There are a few contentious issues, but these can surely be settled through negotiation. Boycotting the meetings will not do the movement for a Janlokpal bill any good. It will be a setback to the peoples’ movement to make India a corruption-free nation.
Let's all appeal together for rational thought and action.
Emotions have now reached boiling point around the issue of corruption. The Janlokpal bill movement of the India Against Corruption group, combining under Anna Hazare and the recent fast by Baba Ramdev are propelled by the deep felt frustration that millions of Indians feel about corruption. The outpouring of support is an indication of how raw the emotions are, and how impotent people are feeling.
Ipaidabribe.com is fully supportive of what these movements stand for and we give the move for a Janlokpal bill our undiluted support. We have done this in many ways, by taking part in protest marches in Bangalore, engaged in discussions and public meetings, given interviews and sound bytes to support the cause, put up information and links on our site and exhorted other citizens to lend their support.
We are deeply concerned about the break-up of Baba Ramdev’s fast by the government. We condemn it as unwarranted use of force against an act of peaceful protest.
However, the danger with the agitationist approach is that when they are carried out under the full glare of the media, the real issues are forgotten. The anti-corruption agenda also gets politicised in the process. Suffice to say that none of our political parties are clean and none can therefore escape by supporting an agitation against the government.
Civil society will always face one dilemma when we launch large scale movements. Who do we represent? How were we chosen to represent those who are sympathetic to our cause? This is one question to which we really have no answer, particularly when we face politicians, however despicable they might be, who are elected through an open democratic process. While so far what Annaji asked for and got - a joint committee to draft the Lokpal bill – has not been questioned, would a compromise solution with Baba Ramdev include a few of ‘his’ representatives too on this committee? Or would it mean the setting up of another joint committee to draft an asset recovery law, this time with five representatives of the Baba, to represent civil society? What happens if the floodgates open and every other civil society movement launches fasts and agitations, to push for the acceptance of diverse, or even opposing agendas?
This approach of a self-chosen few representing concerned citizens is something that we are not sure we fully agree with. Every time that we have a debate on a law, can we demand that a 50-50 committee of 'us' and 'them' be formed? Where is the 'us' and 'them' here? Just because we are fed up with the political system and feel that all politicians or bureaucrats are corrupt, we cannot create a parallel process.
Given these issues, we believe that the boycott of the deliberations of the Joint Committee for drafting the Lokpal bill, by Civil Society representatives can be counter-productive. The Joint Committee is the most important forum today for civil society to interact productively with the government. We must not forsake this opportunity. We must continue to work with the government if we have to get a Lokpal Act. No provocation should deviate us from this path. A stalemate is in nobody’s interest.
The issue of corruption is so vast and complex that it will take many different initiatives, focused on a variety of fronts. In the long term, we need to improve our political system, because at the end of the day, politics is the only process to resolve our public challenges. Since this will take time and sustained effort, we can achieve considerable success in the short term to reduce corruption, by improving systems and processes that touch large numbers of people on a daily basis.
Janaagraha, which stands for a better quality of city life through more citizens’ participation and the cleansing of corruption in government services, has taken this path of promoting systems improvement.Ipaidabribe.com aims at using citizens’ experiences to analyse where we are going wrong in the delivery of government services and suggest process reforms to reduce corruption. We can clean up the processes of filing FIRs, issuing ration cards, driving licences and police processes. Success in doing this will prompt faster change. It will encourage larger numbers of citizens not to vent their anger and frustration through agitation, but effectively resist corruption through individual steps in their daily life and transactions with the government. Faced with this silent but potent resistance, corruption at this level will come down. As honest officers in the government gain the upper hand, the process of reducing corruption will gain even more momentum. This process will be gradual and will not attract front page headlines. But it will be a real and demonstrable improvement.
Ipaidabribe.com looks at bringing about systemic changes to reduce corruption. We also aim to bring to the reader in-depth analyses of issues that rock this country on corruption. Some of our recent efforts in this regard are:
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• A campaign to persuade the government to ratify the UN convention against corruption. The Declaration identifies 12 kinds of corruption, including private sector corruption that is considered as criminal acts. However, India had not ratified this convention and our laws only recognised 3 of these 12 as punishable offences of corruption. Our campaign informed people why it was important for the convention to be signed, and what it would do to strengthen the anti-corruption legal framework. The convention has since been ratified and we are examining the downstream laws that need changing to give effect to this big step forward.
• Providing a detailed ongoing analysis of the issues relating to the Lokpal Act, for the knowledge of citizens.
• Educate citizens on the long term effort to cleanse the political system, so as to make it less prone to corruption.
• Producing process-wise analyses of corruption prone departments based on the reports of citizens and suggest process changes. Our reports have so far covered the Transport Department, income Tax refunds, corruption in the registration department, Corruption in the railways. Many more such departmental studies are on the anvil.
Based upon the wisdom of nearly a thousand citizens who have not paid bribes, we have developed the ten commandments against corruption, to guide citizens to stand up and resist bribery.
It is in this way that we hope to effectively tackle the hydra-headed challenges of corruption in India, with the support of citizens.