Accountability of the Lokpal

A lot has been argued that Lokpal will become a super body with enormous powers. I feel it is not about 'power' but 'ACCOUNTABILITY'. In order to curb massive corruption, we need a body that has some powers to operate smoothly and efficiently. Therefore, if proper mechanisms are put in place, the so called powerful body can be made accountable. Therefore, the following mechanisms can be used (iterated by NCPRI and IAC):

• Accountability regarding the accounts and other performance and financial matters – answerable to the Parliament, through the Public Accounts Committee, on the basis of financial and performance audits conducted by the CAG.
• Any complaint against the Lokpal or its members should lie in the Supreme Court.
• Annual Report of the Lokpal must be laid in the Parliament.
• Any orders passed by any bench of the Lokpal or any officer of the Lokpal shall be subject to the writ jurisdiction of the High Court or Supreme Court.
• The Lokpal shall maintain complete transparency in its functioning and shall ensure that full records of any investigation or inquiry conducted under this Act after its conclusion is made public by being put on a public web site.

Reservations in Lokpal

In my opinion, it is an inadequate argument:

1. None of the other constitutional bodies have it.
2. The objective of the LokPal is not affirmative action but curbing corruption.
3. Only the meritorious people should occupy LokPal. So if an SC/ST/OBC/women is meritorious, he will automatically be eligible.
4. Performance of the LokPal will be judged by how effectively he curbs corruption. The victim can be a general/sc/st/obc/women category. It doesn't matter.
5. There is no bar for people from reserved category to occupy the LokPal membership.
6. It will create way for reservations in other posts as well and ultimately a big political tool and further division of our country.
7. Judiciary doesn't have reservations but still it is the strongest promoter of affirmative action.

Regards

Lokpal – Some areas of concern

Supremacy of Parliament
I feel this is a bogus argument put forward by our parliamentarians. When our constitution was being drafted, we chose to give supremacy to our constitution and not the Parliament as in the case of British system. De Lolme writes ‘British Parliament can do everything except, making a woman a man, or a man a woman’, which is not applicable in our case. The Indian Parliament is supreme only when it comes to framing of laws and therefore overrides any ordinance, rule, guidelines framed by the executive. The Constitution starts with “We The People…” which implies that the constitution derives its authority from the people. If at any point of time there is a difference of opinion between the Parliament and the People at large, the wishes of the people take the precedence. Hence, People are supreme.
Moreover, any legislation by the Parliament can be struck down by the courts.

Can Lokpal be the Panacea?
No one claims that Lokpal is the solution to all the ills of our society as far as corruption is concerned. Not even Team Anna. But if it can’t be a panacea, does it mean that we don’t need a lokpal? Absolutely not. In any act of corruption, there is a demand side and a supply side. Demand side is often characterized by Politicians and bureaucrats and supply side characterized by people/corporates. Ideally, both demand and supply side needs to be tackled simultaneously but if we choose one, then it has to be the demand side first. This is because if people at large choose not to pay bribes to get their work done, there would be delays in getting the work done or at times refusal if bribe is not paid. So act on demand side first and Lokpal is the best first step for it.

Including the entire Bureaucracy
It is preferable to include the entire bureaucracy because corruption many a times is a collusive act where many people at various levels are involved. We often hear about lower officials saying “upar saab ko bhi dena padta hai”. And once proper structures are established and some sort of deterrence is created with ‘speedy’ and ‘sure’ punishment, we may not require a heavy bureaucracy to prevent corruption.

Independence of CBI
It is one of the core issues that can’t be compromised. A CBI independent of the Government and not totally independent is the need of the hour. Independence does not mean no accountability.This has been upheld by the Hon’bl Supreme Court umpteen number of times. This will also do away with SC monitoring investigations as in the case of 2G scam.

Selection of important posts
It has been aptly said “Either you recruit right or train right”. Therefore any such selection of important posts be it that of Director CBI or Director of Prosecution, must involve the government, opposition, civil society, Judges, lokpal chairperson and in such a way that in no way the people against whom the CBI is expected to act i.e., politicians, bureaucracy and judiciary, should be more than half the number of members in the selection panel.

Investigative Agency
It must be CBI because it is a professional agency engaging in the same for the last so many years. The infrastructure, though inadequate as compared to FBI, is well laid out. Moreover, any new agency created will have to start from scratch requiring people to be trained. The infrastructure takes time to develop and it may end up like other agencies which are not able to perform as per their potential because of manpower shortages, lack of skilled personnel and deficient infrastructure such as Competition Commission of India, Central Information Commission etc.

Lokayuktas
The Lokpal Bill must provide for the lokayuktas as well. The overall framework must be the same as the central lokpal so that there is uniformity in all the states. This will also provide for harmony between the central and state laws. Also, otherwise it will become very difficult to request to every state or raise protests against for such an agency.

‘My way or the highway’
Team Anna has been often accused of this. It must be noted that on core issues – independence of CBI, lokayuktas etc, there can’t be any compromise. You can’t treat the disease partially. Therefore, the team is right on being rigid on core issues. On the appropriate mechanism, there can be dilution but that must not be seen weakening of the Lokpal.

‘Either you are with us or you support corruption’
This is a false propaganda put forward by some people, especially some journalist. Firstly, these people don’t have any alternative idea/structure of Lokpal. They come on the TV sets, criticize government’s draft for 30 seconds and then speak for 20 odd minutes against Team Anna. This forces many of the people to brand these people as supporting corruption. They have been writing for many years in reputed newspapers/magazines but have failed to arouse any kind of awareness against corruption. Moreover, many of the newspapers/magazines with which they are associated cater to middle classes.

Role of Media
Watching TV debates will tell you that the knowledge level of many of the journalists and that too of reputed media channels is so low that they end up asking panelists as to whether they require independence of CBI. There are some issues on which there can not be any Yes or No. This also supports the argument made by Justice Katju that many of the journalists have no idea of political, economic, social theory. The Media, being one of the pillars of democracy, will have to be responsible in facilitating such debates.

Finally, the problem today is that the systems in our country have failed, more so when it comes to the accountability mechanism envisaged by our founding fathers. When there have been three-sixty degree changes all around, especially post-globalization, the governance, characterized by status-quo, has failed to keep pace with the society as well as global trends. In the times to come, a strong Lokpal should be our first step towards rectifying this lacuna.

Regards