The road to Hell is paved with good intentions

BY DARSHAK MEHTA

As far as I am concerned, Anna Hazare is, at best, a well-intentioned ex-army truck driver who has tapped into a rich vein of the Indian public’s discontent and disillusionment with politicians, and represents their frustration and alarm at the corruption in Indian society. Full marks to him. But, I am exasperated when people call him a Gandhian. For a start, I don’t want to be preached to by a man who has been accused of beating up his fellow villagers in Ralegan Siddhi with his old army belt for over-imbibing alcohol. Also, he dictates what cable TV can and cannot be watched, and until what hours, in his village? Add enforced vasectomy to the list of requirements necessary for residence in his native village – another of his conditions.

Excuse me, but who appointed you as their moral guardian?

I also don’t want to be preached by a man who believes in sharia-like punishment of cutting off hands or in capital punishment for graft. Are we talking of Anna Hazare –alleged Gandhian – or the Taliban’s Mullah Omar, here?

I have no doubt that he is being manipulated by a couple of others in his “team”, and the generally appalling Indian television channels have, at best, cynically exploited the hunger fast and at worst, deliberately blocked opposing viewpoints from being aired.

Forgetting my above prejudices, let us examine his movement’s objectives.

Basically, they want to foist an unelected, extra-constitutional authority (a Jan Lok Pal) on the people of India. Now that may be extremely relevant and the need of the hour given the gargantuan corruption scandals, but really, is it in the best interests of our democracy to push this through in the form and time-frame demanded, and without sufficient debate or safeguards built in, by the elected representatives of the people of India?

Democracies are messy, crazy and none more so than India, but the thought of a “Super Seshan” as the Jan Lok Pal haunts me. Some readers might remember that megalomaniac Indian bureaucrat, T N Seshan, who on becoming India’s Chief Election Commissioner usurped such powers and authority that the elected Government of the day quaked in their collective boots at his many edicts and idiosyncrasies. Do we want another Seshan as the Lok Pal?

How can India have an “independent” (selected and unelected) authority in a post answerable to virtually no-one? Not even parliamentary oversight? A new super Prime Minister who can call anyone to account? We need to be careful to ensure that the cure (the erosion of democratic institutions) is not much worse than the disease (of corruption).

Sure, I am as much against corruption as anyone else – that is a motherhood statement –but to enforce a demand down the throat of the world’s greatest democracy by means of shameless moral blackmail i.e. a hunger fast, is posturing and tyranny of the worst kind. The genuineness of Hazare’s grievances do not lend sanctity to the method of agitation. Is arm-twisting, howsoever peaceful, of institutions which have been created through years of running a democracy not muzzling of views? Sure, things need to quickly improve but courses are not corrected by whipping up a frenzy among people by promising that the Jan Lokpal Bill is the only path to nirvana from corruption.

Despite the hysteria which is sweeping every rung of the Indian urban society on this corruption issue, the only hope and consolation is that the Indian intelligentsia has not completely lost their marbles.

Writer Arundhati Roy said, “The search committee, the committee which is going to shortlist the names of the people who will be chosen for the Jan Lokpal will shortlist from eminent individuals of such class of people whom they deem fit. So you create this panel from this pool, and then you have a bureaucracy which has policing powers, the power to tap your phones, the power to prosecute, the power to transfer, the power to judge, the power to do things which are really, and from the Prime Minister down to the bottom, it’s really like a parallel power, which has lost the accountability, whatever little accountability a representative government might have, but I’m not one of those who is critiquing it from the point of view of say, someone like Aruna Roy, who has a less draconian version of the bill, I’m talking about it from a different point of view altogether of firstly, the fact that we need to define what do we mean by corruption, and then what does it mean to those who are disempowered and disenfranchised to get two oligarchies instead of one raiding over them.”

Think about it and read it repeatedly – until you feel as uncomfortable as I do!

Indians elect their own governments. If that government is corrupt, they have the right to elect a new government. They also have the right to stand for elections if none of the parties are deemed worthy of their votes. Anna Hazare proposes that a body more powerful than the current government be established. This body will not be elected by the people (and they will have no say in the matter of who comprises of this body) but appointed by judges, IAS officers, Padma Bhushan winners and so on.

Why not focus on implementing the array of anti-corruption laws that already exist?

It’s convenient to protest in the street, shout slogans and take a ‘holier than thou’ stance against the government and government officials. We forget that we have been equally guilty and corrupt for sustaining that system. The self-righteousness is what I resent.

Most protesters on the streets of India may know little about the proposed Lokpal Bill and its long-term implications. They are desperate to see a change in the system, but desperate times do not call for stupidity and they most certainly do not call for letting someone else do your thinking for you. Indians are into idol and hero worship, but it has gone a bit too far this time and a merely well intentioned (though, flawed!) man has been painted as the new Gandhi.

We need an objective and rational solution. Not an emotional and impulsive one. The cure should not be worse than the disease.