How many Annas do we need?

Caution: Long post ahead!

Many years ago, students would be asked “How many Annas to the Indian Rupee?” Not any more. Now the question could be more like “How many Annas to the Indian Revolution?”

Just when we Indians were feeling comfy with the fact that since there were no squares in India, the Jasmine revolution or any other of its kind – even a Lotus, for that matter - would not touch our shores, let alone sweep it - the unexpected happened. A perfect black swan event, could we call it? It was bound to happen and yet nobody expected it to happen!

We just wanted our cricket team to win the ODI Cricket World Cup 2011 - and the boys did it for us! The nation was on a high like never before! All the negativity that the Commonwealth Games or 2G scams had engulfed us had been quickly forgotten in the festivities that followed.

Then came the call from Anna Hazare, the phenomenonal leader of the masses - to which the aam aadmi supported to the hilt. Enough is enough, he said – the endless list of scams and loot of public money has got to stop! We need a law and we shall fight for it, if we have to, was his call to the public. He even chose the manner in which people would go about it – peaceful protests and a fast-unto-death for the proposed Jan Lok Pal Bill. It was a great show of solidarity of the masses with their new-found leader – non-violent, steadfast in its objectives and a rare display of unity. People from all walks of life, cutting across party lines came together – just as they did when they supported the Indian cricket team a week ago!

None of the participants committed any acts of vandalism, as is often seen when political parties organise a street show. No shops shut down – no rickshaws, buses or trains were disrupted, as a “bandh call” usually does. This was no bandh! It was the opening of shut minds and lax bodies that were responding to the call of Annasaheb.

I read editorials about the Jan Lok Pal Bill in several leading and reputed publications. The enlightened and all-knowing journalists voiced their opinion about how the proposed Jan Lok Pal Bill would amount to subversion of democracy. How the Lok Pal would be a creation of an all-powerful body, not elected by the members of the public, who would yield judicial and executive powers of the state, which could be very easily mis-used. They told us that Annasaheb had the right intention and the gumption to take on the powers that be, but had been fighting for a law that was, unfortunately, not the solution – perhaps only another powerful monster to deal with in the future.

Some told us that effective as it was, the fast-unto-death was a threat in itself and the government was held to ransom in giving in to the demands – not a democratic means of getting across your point of view in a democratic set up. The mood of the public was too upbeat to stomach this criticism – Anna was a true hero and none would have anything said against him – at least when he was the only man standing for the common man on the street after being let down by all those who are expected to protect their interest – the elected members of Parliament. At least that was the mood.

All these days, I was reading editorials, opinion columns, blogpost and news-item on the subject. None of them answered the basic questions that I had in my mind as follows:-
1. Are we sure that we don’t have a law to punish the corrupt Rajas and Kalmadis or whoever they were that looted the government exchequer of Lakhs of Crores today?
2. Isn’t there a mechanism to get back the money that has been swindled today without the Jan Lok Pal bill in place? Surely it would not apply retrospectively!
3. Are we to believe that the country has been run for 60 years without a law to punish corrupt ministers or bureaucrats - at any level?
4. How is a new Bill, which is being drafted for the umpteen hundredth time for the last 4 decades help in these past cases?
5. How is it that - whenever we hear about gross violations of the law and misdeeds committed on a large scale or a widely spread phenomenon in our society – we always say that we need a law to deal with it? Don’t we have laws in place to deal with gross violations?
6. Are we fooling ourselves by saying we need laws, when what we should be asking is which is the law that has been violated and what is the punishment for it, what are the means to recover the loot under the present legal framework?
7. Aren’t we helping those who have committed serious frauds of humongous proportions on the entire nation to get away due to this “lack-of-a-law syndrome”, if I may call it so?
8. Although there is no denying the fact that laws need to be tweaked and better laws are needed to replace old laws, this is an ongoing activity and the law-breakers can be dealt with under current laws. Why this focus is being lost in the process for demanding new acts or bills?
9. How many Annas would our nation need to undertake a fast - if the Government only responds to Annas going on fasts?
10. How many Annas make an Indian revolution?

This is not to be construed to mean that we would not need legal reforms or new laws in place of the old creaky ones, we would need them for sure!

But the Jan Lok Pal Bill would need a wider debate and participation of several brilliant minds before it becomes a law - it would need a lot of time and lots and lots of effort and public debate - before it is enacted as a law. When it comes, I do hope it does become an effective tool which serves the nation in the days to come. Until then, it is difficult – nay Impossible for me to believe that there is no existing law to deal with the offenders of serious frauds.

I am sure there are enough laws – what is lacking is the political will and that sense of responsibility and answerability/accountability of the Government to the Indian citizen. The people of India, especially the tax-payers, would feel short-changed if they were told that NOTHING can be done to bring the scamsters to book and recover the moneys swindled from the Government exchequer.