Email sent on 20-Jun-2011
Sir, if we had strong Lokpal like bill and completely independent CBI, Rajiv Gandhi, Narashima Rao, Narendra Modi, L K Advani, Mayawati and many others had to resign from their post and perhaps many of them would have been in jail. Politicians cannot take refuge behind slow legal process. If prima facie is established against any politicians or government officials in High Court or Supreme Court they must resign immediately. They can come back only if they are cleared of the charges by court.
Today CBI does not pick up any corruption cases of its own unless it is flashed in media. 2G scam was in the news in 2007 itself. Unfortunately media didn’t pick up the scam seriously then, so the scam was almost buried. Can you believe that CBI could not solve open and shut cases like anti Sikh riot in 1984 or demolition of disputed structure in Ayodhya or lynching of 3,000 Muslims in Gujarat post Godhra.
Politicians are running out of options on Lokpal bill. You may hate Anna or may be critical of his political statements praising Modi and attacking Sonia and his abusive words against senior ministers calling them liar, ‘dhokabaaj’ which I strongly condemn. But the spark he created on corruption issue cannot be doused by centre or state governments. India ratified United Nations Convention Against Corruption. Under UNCAC, preventive policies to stop corruption include active involvement of civil society in efforts to prevent and combat corruption. In relation to civil society support, UNCAC mentioned external scrutiny is key for assessing the enforcement and impact of government reforms. So, civil society has to play bigger role under UNCAC. Civil society should comprise of 500 or more people recognized by government of India and there must be a procedure to select the members in a non political manner.
Both sides of the drafting committee are creating confusion through contradictory statements. Lets have an open debate in TV between Anna's team and representatives of government on Lokpal bill moderated by you. Mr Sibal said that the two sides have agreed on as many as 36 of 40 features of the Bill. We want to hear from both sides together.
Dear PM,
Kapil Sibal made loud argument in Barkha's show that the Lokpal Bill should not apply to the Prime Minister's Office and that credible allegations of corruption against the PM should be investigated after the PM has completed his or her term. He also said PM must be protected for stable democracy. Loud argument is not necessarily strong argument. My response is why we should protect corrupt PM? In Japan how many PM resigned because of corruption charges? Japan’s democracy is no less stable than ours. If corruption charges are accepted by Supreme Court against the PM, 2 weeks to be given to parliament to choose next PM before the current PM resigns.
Kapil Sibal made loud argument in Barkha's show that the Lokpal Bill should not apply to the Prime Minister's Office and that credible allegations of corruption against the PM should be investigated after the PM has completed his or her term. He also said PM must be protected for stable democracy. Loud argument is not necessarily strong argument. My response is why we should protect corrupt PM? In Japan how many PM resigned because of corruption charges? Japan’s democracy is no less stable than ours. If corruption charges are accepted by Supreme Court against the PM, 2 weeks to be given to parliament to choose next PM before the current PM resigns.
In most of the developed nations head of the state is under the ambit of investigating body which does not require any permission from anybody. Nobody is asking PM to resign on the basis of mere allegation against him. However if the allegation is accepted by Supreme Court then he must resign. When Mrs Indira Gandhi lost to Allahabad high court, instead of resigning, she declared emergency in the pretext of security of the country. She killed our democracy that day. Dr Amartya Sen said that we should never forget emergency.
Sir, if we had strong Lokpal like bill and completely independent CBI, Rajiv Gandhi, Narashima Rao, Narendra Modi, L K Advani, Mayawati and many others had to resign from their post and perhaps many of them would have been in jail. Politicians cannot take refuge behind slow legal process. If prima facie is established against any politicians or government officials in High Court or Supreme Court they must resign immediately. They can come back only if they are cleared of the charges by court.
Today CBI does not pick up any corruption cases of its own unless it is flashed in media. 2G scam was in the news in 2007 itself. Unfortunately media didn’t pick up the scam seriously then, so the scam was almost buried. Can you believe that CBI could not solve open and shut cases like anti Sikh riot in 1984 or demolition of disputed structure in Ayodhya or lynching of 3,000 Muslims in Gujarat post Godhra.
Politicians are running out of options on Lokpal bill. You may hate Anna or may be critical of his political statements praising Modi and attacking Sonia and his abusive words against senior ministers calling them liar, ‘dhokabaaj’ which I strongly condemn. But the spark he created on corruption issue cannot be doused by centre or state governments. India ratified United Nations Convention Against Corruption. Under UNCAC, preventive policies to stop corruption include active involvement of civil society in efforts to prevent and combat corruption. In relation to civil society support, UNCAC mentioned external scrutiny is key for assessing the enforcement and impact of government reforms. So, civil society has to play bigger role under UNCAC. Civil society should comprise of 500 or more people recognized by government of India and there must be a procedure to select the members in a non political manner.
Both sides of the drafting committee are creating confusion through contradictory statements. Lets have an open debate in TV between Anna's team and representatives of government on Lokpal bill moderated by you. Mr Sibal said that the two sides have agreed on as many as 36 of 40 features of the Bill. We want to hear from both sides together.
Since civil society is divided over Lokpal bill let's have an exhaustive checklist of features of the bill and be posted on website and distributed to other sections of civil society from all states for voting and comments.
Finally for God's sake you lead the debate on Lokpal bill.
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