Is Anna Hazare Wrong?

Over the past week I have been reading many articles in the papers about various sections of the public – eminent personalities, so-called representatives of suppressed classes shouting out that Anna Hazare is wrong to force Jan Lok Pal on various counts.

Every individual who has commented has looked at it from his/her own perspective, some I would say has even looked at the benefits for self rather than the society at large.

While I agree that a new bill/law is not enough to cure the malady of corruption & it’s execution will really matter in how effective the bill/law is in rooting out corruption. I believe that we have to start somewhere and force the lawmakers to come up with strong laws. If public just sits by the sidelines and cribbing it is of no use. Someone should stand-up and raise the voice and demand accountability. Only if public is actively involved will the politicians have some degree of fear.

In the 65 years since Independence, we have hardly seen any corrupt politician/top official being prosecuted, found guilty and being punished for corruption. It takes years to even file a case, even longer to run the case and finally lack of evidence is cited to discharge the guilty of all charges. In the process, more tax payer money is wasted on the expenses in running the court and sometimes financing the guilty to defend his case.

Corruption today is an accepted thing in our country, we are more willing to pay that bribe and get our work done than follow the process. Given this attitude it is not easy to eradicate corruption, there is no will to do it.

In this scenario, we need a leader like Anna Hazare to force a change and like all changes, people resist it and find faults in it. All who find faults can actually support it and ensure the implementation is done to the spirit of the law. But most who talk today about the flaws will vanish from the centre-stage when monitoring & enforcing implementation stage comes up because they are more interested in talking not acting.

Anna Hazare is doing a very simple thing – WALK THE TALK.

I think we should support him and ensure a strong Lok Pal Bill becomes the law, later we can form local committees to monitor it’s implementation. Probably we may need another revolution to ensure proper implementation of the law, but we should do it if needed. Flaws if any can be identified better when law is implemented and can be corrected any time.

Have a look at RTI act – though powerful, we have not focused on ensuring the proper implementation of the act resulting in poor disclosures which are against the spirit of the law.

One thing I would recommend to Team Anna and any other anti-corruption crusader – Educate the masses – Educate about their rights & duties, educate how they can fight corruption, educate them about various possible actions they can take under the law. An enlightened public society will help better implementation of the law