New year resolution on Lokpal

Email sent to Politicians and Civil Society members on 02-Jan-2012
Happy new year to everybody.

2011 was a terrific year in the history of Indian politics. For the first time civil society was actively involved in drafting bill along with ministers. It is the beginning of establishment of participatory democracy, new found word for 2011, in India. In spite of confrontation, hiccups and mutual abuse between politicians and civil society members, Indian democracy is a clear winner. Let’s analyze Anna’s movement to bring strong anti corruption law more objectively in political perspective.

- Team Anna perhaps realized that Congress is not their enemy no 1. Regional party will never allow a uniform strong Lokayukta in the state. Mamata Banerjee is as dictatorial and arrogant as Jyoti Basu. She knows that her party workers are no less corrupt than CPM workers. So, strong Lokayukta will be a death warrant for her party.

- Congress and BJP must stop calling each other corrupt. For every mischief of congress there is a mischief of BJP and vice versa. So, none of them can take moral high ground.

- If BJP and Congress don’t work together, it will benefit regional parties only. Let there be a coalition government between Congress and BJP and post of PM be shared between them for 2.5 years each.

- Team Anna must work closely with NCPRI and other civil society groups.

- Civil society must form an association to engage with state and central governments more effectively.

- I do not understand why congress is insisting BJP to support the bill when the amendments moved by BJP are rejected by them. Opposition cannot be the rubber stamp of the government.

- Perfection is elusive for those who want to escape from the challenge of excellence. The Lokpal bill passed by Loksabha is not fit for use. It needs amendments. People of India expect PM to intervene in the deadlock and invite Arun Jaitley and Abhishek Singhvi to his office to understand inadequacies of the bill as pointed out by the opposition more carefully. PM must lead the debate.

- People of India are not interested in the debate of article 852 vs 853. We want a strong Lokpal at centre and equally strong and uniform Lokayukta at states. It is the responsibility of law makers to decide how to achieve it.

- Drama at RajyaSabha could have been avoided if Chairperson stopped the debate after 8pm. All the debates after Arun Jaitlay and Abhishek Singhvi were repetition of what they already said. We failed to comprehend why Narayanaswamy was allowed to speak for 70 minutes at very late hours when his voice was cracking and no one could understand what he was talking about. Government should have tabled the Lokpal bill at least two weeks before the debate.

- Political establishment didn’t like Anna’s movement at all. They considered it to be intrusion to their sovereignty.

- Government’s approach to deal with civil society was thoroughly unprofessional.  Their objective was to take the steam out of Anna's movement step by step. They agreed to have a dialogue with team Anna, but showed little interest to the suggestions made by them.

- Government was successful in irritating team Anna to such an extent that Team Anna lost their negotiation skill and resorted to arm twisting. Over the period, a perception was built that Team Anna is inflexible, arrogant and believes in ‘My way or high way’ – a phrase which was repeatedly used by every congress spokespersons in every TV debate.

- Anna’s campaign against Congress in Hisar by election is proved to be wrong now. Anna is viewed as anti congress, pro BJP which is a big blow to his non political credentials.

BJP and Congress both should retrospect on the series of events that happened in connection with Lokpal bill. Next time before defending their party position on TV channels they should remember that India is 95th most corrupt nation in the world as per transparency international with corruption perception index as 3.1 out of 10.  So we need a strong Lokpal/Lokayukta that will improve CPI at least by 2 points per year in next 3 years.

Finally it is my personal view that corruption of group C and D government employees can be stopped overnight if 1,000 undercover agents track down corrupt employees with hidden camera for 30 days and make 10,000 arrests in a month all over India. Shekhar Suman exposed corruption of police and other departments in his famous Pol Khol TV serial for few years. Unfortunately no state governments took any action against those exposed officials. If there is a political will, eliminating corruption is not a difficult task.

Lokpal Bill - Submission to Standing committee

To

Shri K.P. Singh

Director, Rajya Sabha Secretariat

201, Second Floor

Parliament House Annexe

New Delhi – 110001

Sir,

In response to invitation for suggestion on The Lokpal Bill 2011, I am submitting memoranda to the standing committee through email. I have also posted the hard copy. My submission is divided into 3 parts

1.      My view on Lokpal Bill 

2.      My observation on Jan Lokpal Bill version 2.3 prepared by Anna Hazare and his team

3.      My observation on NCPRI Lokpal bill as available in public domain -

http://righttoinformation.info/ncpri-public-consultations-on-the-lok-pal-bill/public-consultations-on-collective-and-concurrent-lokpal-anti-corruption-and-grievance-redress-measures-by-the-ncpri-nehru-memorial-museum-and-library-and-inclusive-media-4-change-csds/

I refrain from making any comments on government version of Lokpal Bill 2011 as I believe it requires thorough revision. The deficiencies of the government Lokpal bill are well document in NCPRI site under section 'Major Amendments suggested to the Government Lokpal Bill' of the above URL. The difference between Jan Lokpal and Government version of Lokpal is also documented in public site –

http://www.hitxp.com/articles/politics/differences-comparison-anna-jan-lokpal-government-bill/ 

My View on Lokpal
The fight against corruption lies in two prong strategy – proactive and reactive. In a proactive measure we must try to prevent corruption through use of technology, improving quality of life and eliminating inconvenience. In reactive mode if corruption happens there must be a fool proof mechanism to investigate, prosecute and provide free and fair trial to corrupt people. Let me describe the structure of Lokpal with the following diagram.

I think it may not be a good idea to have a monolithic all powerful single Lokpal with power to both prosecute and judge any corruption. Prosecution and Trial Lokpal must be separate and independent bodies. We also need a Lokpal which will identify measures to prevent corruption. I would like to see NGO, religious organizations, lower bureaucracy, corporate under Lokpal. Judiciary may be kept out of Lokpal. Let there be multiple independent Lokpal with similar structure as follows

1.      Lokpal for Prevention

2.      Lokpal for Prosecution (covered in Jan Lokpal and NCPRI Lokpal)

a.       higher bureaucracy Lokpal

b.      lower bureaucracy Lokpal

c.       NGO, Corporate and Religious Organization Lokpal

d.      Grievance Redressal Lokpal

3.      Trial Lokpal (covered in Jan Lokpal as part of prosecution Lokpal)

Prevention Lokpal

I propose to setup a Lokpal whose sole objective is to prevent corruption through use of technology, improving quality of life and eliminating inconvenience in daily life.

1.      Use technology

The best example of how technology can eliminate corruption is computerized railway reservation system. Lokpal and Lokauykt must proactively identify areas where use of technology will eliminate corruption. They will prepare a detailed report and submit the report to government of India and state governments for speedy implementation. Let's identify few common area of corruption

1.      Loss of revenue due to non payment of VAT

2.      Appointment of teachers in schools is a great source of corruption

3.      Post office employees ask for bribe during encashment of Kisan Vikas or NSC

4.      Bank employee asking for bribe during loan sanction

5.      Police posting in important area of the city. In Calcutta Burrabazar is considered to be most coveted area for posting among police constables. This posting is auctioned for millions of rupees because one can earn in crores through bribes.

6.      Municipal Corporation asking for bribes from builders for plan sanction, water connection, issuing completion certificate.

Role of Lokpal

Many of the corruptions can be tackled by simplification of process and use of technology. Lokpal must have the authority to recommend better process management and use of technology. Government of India should expedite UID project which would be extremely beneficial to crack down on corruption.

2.      Improve quality of life

 In my view people become corrupt for the following reasons.

Bad association. When we were young, we always take a very high moral ground until we meet greedy people who killed their conscious long back. So we need to introduce some kind of awakening class by some honest respectable persons. I firmly believe that even the most corrupt person always wanted to have dignified life in their subconscious state.

Ugly work environment – Once I had been in income tax office in Kolkata. No sane people can work there – from dust to pile of papers to broken chairs to exposed electric wiring, it is just a hell. Few years back I was watching a TV programme showing a police station in Bihar. If we had slightest respect for human being, we would not ask anybody to work in such an inhuman condition. I believe smart workplace will produce smarter people with positive outlook about life.

In order to promote quality of life I propose

1.      Increase of pay packet. Minimum CTC should be Rs 20,000 for a 5-member family with one earning member.

2.      Encourage people to live a little bit of luxurious life. Issue surprise gift voucher of Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 5,000 from brand names. It is very important to have some level of aspiration in life. Let people enjoy the joy of shopping in Mall during festive session.

3.      Make the workplace look beautiful and enjoyable. There is a sharp difference in productivity between people working in Delhi railway station and Delhi Metro Station. We got to invest in the infrastructure of police stations, nationalized banks, post offices, block development offices and many other government offices. Currently they are just horrible.

4.      Let everybody vote for the most honest person within his or her department for that month every month. This will make other ashamed so that they will try to change themselves.

5.      Elect person of the month in every department.

6.      Sack repeated non-performer and counsel low performer.

7.      Oversee punctuality i.e. ensure that everybody is working 40 hours a week. Outsource this job to a third party. I know there will be all round protest from the unions, politicians. But at some point government has to be firm. We have tolerated coming to office late and leaving early for last 40 years. Time has come to implement some basic discipline. 

Role of Lokpal

Lokpal will recommend government innovative ways to improve quality of life that will eventually help to reduce corruption.

3.      Eliminate inconvenience

Causing inconvenience intentionally or unintentionally is a dangerous form of corruption. Inconvenience is caused due to many factors like incompetence of the concerned departments, bad planning, failure to complete big ticket public welfare project on time, criminal negligence of person in charge. Let me state few common inconveniences we face in our daily life

1.      Lack of proper garbage disposal system. Garbage is lying open on the road

2.      Highly indiscipline traffic because lack of lane and all sorts of vehicle on the road - cars, buses, cycles, auto rickshaws, bullock carts, elephants

3.      Damaged roads, no pavements for pedestrians, pavements occupied by hawkers

4.      Mosquito causing Malaria, dengue and other diseases

5.      Open drains with full of mud

6.      Stray street dogs all over the city

7.      Dirty toilets of railway coaches and dirty railways stations.

8.      No drinking water in rural area

9.      Calling political rally during weekdays and Saturday

10.  Non availability of ambulance during emergency

11.  Extremely poor medical facilities in government hospitals

Quality Assurance Group

I propose to set up a Quality Assurance Group (QAG) in each department. The objective is to prevent breakdown of process and fix it, if broken. The responsibilities of QAG should be

1.      Define the business process of every department graphically along with an operational manual.

2.      Monthly checklist based audit of every unit of each department (e.g. all hospitals of health department). All non conformances raised should be logged, root cause analyzed, action point identified and tracked to closure.

3.      Perform Pareto analysis and identify actions to eliminate common categories of problems

4.      Define key performance indicators (KPI) like customer satisfaction index for each department/unit in quantitative term (e.g. for hospitals ask patients to fill up satisfaction survey form with 10 questions). Set a goal for each KPI and baseline them.

5.      Measure KPI monthly and any deviation from the goal needs to be root caused and corrective actions to be taken.

Role of Lokpal

The scope of Lokpal would be

1.      Lokpal will ensure that each department creates QAG

2.      Lokpal will ensure that QAG conducts audits on a regular interval

3.      All non compliances (NC) reported by QAG must be copied to Lokpal. If the concerned department fails to close those NCs in a timely manner, Lokpal will take appropriate action

4.      Lokpal will have authority to take suo motu cognizance of public inconveniences (as above) and identify owner to fix it

5.      Lokpal will interact closely with QAG of each department

6.      Lokpal will oversee big projects of 50 crore and above (like completion of fly over) including projects like MNERGA for quality assurance and schedule overrun only. It will not interfere into project management or cost overrun or quality control

7.      Lokpal should closely monitor projects from MPLAD

8.      Lokpal is not an investigative agency like CID. It will not look into corruption or review the policy matters of the concerned departments. It will only check violation of defined process to pre-empt corruption.

9.      Lokpal may act as a whistle blower for potential or actual wrong doing.

 My observations on Jan Lokpal Bill version 2.3

The Jan Lokpal documents detailed measures to prevent corruption at all levels, especially at lower levels. I would like to add one section in the Jan Lokpal bill.

Deterrence

Today people don’t care about law. Those who indulge corruption believe that they can get away with any kind of crimes through political nexus and slow judicial process. I have few suggestions for deterrence

1.      Quick identification of corrupt people with the help of technology such as lie detector, brain mapping and others. These technologies are reliable beyond reasonable doubt. If someone knows that he/she will be caught within couple of weeks of committing a crime, they will think ten times before doing the same. Investigation wing of Lokpal must use these machines to establish prima facie. Output of lie detector and other such machines must have legal binding.

2.      Another form of deterrence is indictment of spouse if she/he has the knowledge of the corruption of their other half. Lokpal should have the power to indict spouse for knowledge of crime.

My specific comments on Jan Lokpal bill are as follows

1.      Same Lokpal doing investigation, prosecution, judging and punishing will lead to bias. So, there should be two separate Lokpal - one for prosecution and other for trial

2.      Trial Lokpal will have the following authority (not prosecution Lokpal)

a.       Right to freeze the asset of accused if convicted.

b.      Chapter III - Functions of Lokpal - point 6.c - after completion of investigation in any case involving an allegation of an act of corruption, to impose punishment of dismissal, removal or reduction in rank against government servants after giving them reasonable opportunities of being heard.

c.       Chapter III - Functions of Lokpal - point 6.n - to attach property and assets acquired by corrupt means and to confiscate them in certain cases as provided under this Act.

d.      Chapter III - Functions of Lokpal - point 6.o - to recommend cancellation or modification of a lease, license, permission, contract or agreement, if it was obtained by corrupt means and to recommend blacklisting of a firm, company, contractor or any other person, involved in an act of corruption.

e.       Chapter III - Functions of Lokpal - point 6.p - to ensure due compliance of its orders by imposing penalties on persons failing to comply with its orders as provided under this Act

f.       Chapter III - Powers of officers under Lokpal - point 7.4 - A Lokpal bench may punish a public servant with imprisonment up to 6 months or with fine or both, if he fails to comply with its order for ensuring their compliance

g.      Chapter III - Issue of Search Warrant - point 9 - Trial Lokpal will have right to issue search warrant

h.      Chapter XII - point 22 - the jurisdiction for penalties and punishments against corrupt public servants must lie with Trial Lokpal only

3.      Chapter I point 2(e) - Act of corruption should also include – ‘subjecting common man into misery or great difficulty or inconvenience due to negligence, bad planning or incompetence’. If garbage lies on the road it is a great inconvenience for the neighborhood.

4.      There must a Lokpal bench in each of the 5 zones in India. Proper video conferencing facility must be there between each zone.

5.      Chapter II - Establishment of Lokpal point 4.6 - At least 10 members from civil society from all parts of India should be part of selection committee of Lokpal. Tenure of members of civil society should be limited to 5 years.

6.      Chapter II - Establishment of Lokpal - point 4.25 - The Chairperson and members of Lokpal shall not be eligible for appointment to any position in the Government of India or the government of any State or any such body which is funded by any of the Governments or for contesting elections to Parliament, State Legislature or local bodies. The restriction should continue for 2 years after demitting office.

7.      Behavior of MPs within parliament should be outside the purview of Lokpal.

8.      Chapter III - point 6(w)- reward scheme to encourage complaint should not be more than Rs 25,000

9.      Chapter III - point 8 - Lokpal will not have the authority to tap phone or intercept email or internet account. This will be intrusion to one's privacy. Corrupt people will find more innovative way other than use of personal phone and internet to avoid detection.

10.  Chapter IV - point 10.4 - A complaint by any person may be made through internet

11.  Chapter V - point 11.5 - If the complaint against Lokpal is frivolous or has been made with malafide intentions, Supreme Court will warn the complainant on first instance and may impose fine on subsequent occurrence. There should not be any jail term for frivolous complaint.

12.  Chapter V - Appeal against the orders of Lokpal - point 12 - High court may stay the order of Lokpal for indefinite period. There should not be any time limit and there cannot be any automatic vacation of stay after two months. Currently high court and Supreme Court does not have enough bandwidth to close Lokpal orders if challenged in a time box manner. I would suggest use of technology like lie detector to expedite cases.

13.  Chapter V - Audit of Lokpal point 13.2 - If Lokpal does not accept recommendation of parliamentary committee and the committee insists on accepting the recommendations, the matter should be referred to SC.

14.  Chapter VII - 17.1 - Supreme Court and High Court judges should be outside the purview of Lokpal

15.  Chapter X - Timely completion of investigation and trials for corruption - Lokpal and Lokaukt will open the floodgate of cases. HC may not have enough bandwidth to complete the trial within 1 year unless number of High Court judges is increased by 5 times and retirement age of judges extended to 75 years.

16.  Chapter XIII - Grievance redressal system - 25.1 - Each public authority shall prepare a specific charter within a reasonable time not exceeding one year from the coming into force of this Act. The charter must be reviewed and approved by concerned minister. The charter should be prepared within 6 months.

17.  Chapter XIII - Grievance redressal system - 25.4 - What will happen if government does not provide resources to implement citizen charter.

18.  Chapter XIII - Grievance redressal system - 25.5 - What will happen if grievance redressal officer does not accept complaint? Complaint may be made through internet also.

19.  Chapter XIII - Grievance redressal system - 25.9 - suitable penalty should be made on erring officer as well.

20.  Chapter XIII - Grievance redressal system - 25.10 - What will be quantum of departmental punishment. In my view grievance redressal officer and erring officer must be prosecuted in Trial Lokpal for negligence of duty.

21.  Chapter XIV - Budget of Lokpal - We need complete breakup of budget in terms of number of Appellate Grievance officers and investigating officers, number of offices, communication link, transport, state of the art equipments for investigation, training of officers, salary. Budget should be broken into yearly operational cost and one time investment.

22.  Chapter XVI - Public servants property statements - disclosure of assets and liabilities of public servants to the website may put the life of public servant in danger of extortion. Property statement should be kept secret and must be used during investigation.

23.  Chapter XVIII - Punishments for false complaints - point 30.1 - 'Provided that if such complaint is against the staff or officers of Lokpal, Lokpal may sentence the complainant to three months of simple imprisonment in addition to fine' - there should not be any imprisonment.

24.  Chapter XVIII - Provisions to prevent Corruption - point 31.1 - No government official shall be eligible to take up jobs, assignments, consultancies, etc. with any person, company, or organization that he had dealt with in his official capacity. - I think the restriction should be limited to 2 year.

My observations on NCPRI Bill

In principle there is hardly any difference between JanLokpal and NCPRI Lokpal. All the differences are structural. In fact both the bills compliment each other. My observations are

1.      I support the idea of multiple independent Lokpal

2.      Grievance Redressal section of NCPRI is more detailed than Jan Lokpal. NCPRI Grievance Redressal can be taken as basis of the debate.

3.      Whistle Blower section of NCPRI is also very detailed that can be the basis for further discussion. My only comment is we cannot make it obligatory for people, especially those working within organisations, to blow the whistle every time they became aware of a potential or actual wrongdoing. Whistle blowing should be optional.

4.      We don't need to extend the power of CVC to prosecute lower bureaucracy. There should be a separate Lokpal to prosecute lower bureaucracy.

5.      'Collective and Concurrent Lokpal Anti Corruption and Grievance Redress Measures' of NCPRI is more or less in line with Jan Lokpal which is more elaborate.

Lokpal - search for a magic wand‏

Email sent on 20-Aug-2011

Dear PM,

Lokpal issue is getting from bad to worse. Six months back nobody outside Maharashtra knew who Anna is. Today he is an international celebrity. He might even get Peace Nobel Prize. Has anybody done any analysis why things are getting out of control everyday? Short answer is failure of the government to draft a strong effective Lokpal bill. Media rejected the bill. Larger civil society outside Anna’s team rejected it. TV anchors tweeted strongly against the bill. 

You said that you don't have a magic wand. Actually there is a magic wand. Let me explain.

1. Withdraw the Lokpal bill tabled in the parliament

2. Create a 25 member drafting committee - 3 from Government, 3 from Anna's Team, 3 from BJP, 3 from other political parties, 1 member from NCPRI and 12 from larger civil society selected in consultation with Anna and BJP from all over India.

3. Create 50 member review committee purely from civil society that includes retired chief justices from HC and SC.

4. Agree to include PM under Lokpal with minimum restriction.

5. Agree to pass uniform Lokayukt bill in all states.

6. Give constitutional validity of involvement of civil society in parliamentary affairs.  Create a permanent body of 100 member civil society at the centre and 50 member at state level. Parliament (Government and opposition) will select the civil society for a term of 3 years. Civil society will act as checkpoint. All bills and policy decisions like 2G spectrum allocation will be reviewed by them in a transparent manner.

7. Finally I propose to use lie detector to establish prima facie. All politicians, police personnel and civil servants should be subjected to 20 pre approved straight forward questions. If they fail in any one of the questions, they have to resign. Investigation will start afterwards. If they are cleared by court they can return to their job. This is the only way we can get rid of corrupt and criminals quickly. Lie detector will cover both transactional day to day corruption and collusive corruptions like 2G, CWG scams

If government wants to take back the control, they have to do something which Anna's team didn't think of.

Lokpal Bill - Next Step

Email sent on 10-Aug-2011

Dear Ms Bedi,

Anna got a raw deal from Government. To some extent he is also responsible for it. Let me share my views on future course of actions.

1. Anna's team represents miniscule part of larger civil society. He needs to expand breadth of his support from civil society. From each state he must try to garner as much support as possible. For example in Bengal he should explain Lokpal bill to Sourav Ganguly, PC Sorkar, Mamata Shankar, Usha Uthup, TV serial artists, footballers, eminent professors and many others. In each state he should conduct two workshops - one for local celebrities and other for common men comprising of students, teachers, government employee, businessmen, IT professionals. In the workshop he should explain views of civil society and government on contentious issues like inclusion of PM, judiciary, CBI and 1.4 crore of central government employees, Lokayukt.

2. Majority of middleclass people do not understand what are Lokpal and UNCAC? Publish a 15 page booklet explaining Lokpal in the context of UNCAC and why UNCAC mandates greater role of Civil Society to fight corruption which is the greatest menace of our time.

3. Publish a book on scams reported in various newspapers since independence. For each scam find out the current status - investigation is going on or charge sheet filed or case is closed without decision or case is resolved and guilty punished or case is pending in the court. This may take 1 or 2 years to publish. The book should contain a DVD/VCD containing clippings of TV programme and headlines of newspaper on each scam

4. Compile a DVD/VCD with clipping of debates happened in various TV channels between Anna's team and Government representative in last 2 months on Lokpal bill. Distribute 1 million such DVD/VCD throughout India including MPs and MLAs, most of them don't follow Lokpal debate.

5. Organize walk on regular basis in every city and town to make people aware of the need of strong Lokpal bill. Even TV anchors like Arnab Goswami are not fully aware of Lokpal. Last week he debated only on inclusion of PM. In my view critical success factor is independence of investigative agency and authority to prosecute PM.

6. There are 542 MPs, 4000+ MLAs, 25 lacs Panchayat/municipal constituents, 4000 IPS officers, 18 lacs state police, 4500 IAS officers, 40 lacs central govt employee including railways, 50 laks PSU employees, 1.2 crore state employees, 895 high court judges, 16,880 lower court judges (No idea of number of state civil servants). I believe if MP and MLAs are honest, everyone else down the line would be honest. So, in the first step let’s focus on corruption on high and mighty. Let's Lokpal deal with MP/MLA, IAS officers, state civil servants, IPS officers and lower court judges. Lokayukta can investigate politicians at Panchyat/ Municipal level. Rest of government employees may be covered under existing law.

7. Indefinite hunger strike will not help the cause in any way. This may lead to anarchy, vandalism, immolation because thousands of people will come to street for Anna's support. Anna will not have any control over those who will gather around his hunger strike site.

8. I do not believe in referendum - if Mamata Banerjee voices against Lokpal, majority will oppose Lokpal in Bengal. If one asks a rickshaw puller or a university student whether prime minister should be under Lokpal, their answer bears no relevance unless they actually understood pros and cons of inclusion. We have to create pressure through civil society and mass awareness. Hit the politicians where it hurt them most. Politicians will not act unless they realize that they might lose their vote bank for not making strong Lokpal. I think media is doing a good job in conducting opinion poll on Lokpal.

It is a long battle which cannot be won in few months. Anna has to make some concession

Lokpal Bill - Mail to Salman Khurshid

Email sent on 2-Aug-2011

Dear Mr. Salman,

Government lost a historic opportunity to root out corruption from the country. You know better than me that the Lokpal bill as approved by cabinet is a paper tiger. It cannot stop corruption at all. If you don't like Lokpal bill as prepared by Anna you may reject it. But please don't dilute the basic principle of fighting corruption - complete independence of investigative agency and inclusion of PM under it. It will be a giant step if government makes CBI as independent as election commission with a power to prosecute PM. People of India are thankful to election commission for conducting absolutely free and fair election.

I do not understand why Government does not want to bring PM under Lokpal. UNCAC mandates that every civil servant including PM should be under stringent anti corruption law. India is signatory to it. Government's defenses for not to bring PM under Lokpal are

1. According to Pranab Mukherjee, PM cannot work if there are allegations of corruption and if PM goes, government goes.
2. You said to Karan in Devil's advocate that 'for the period someone is the PM Lokpal will not be able to inquire. If someone brings question mark on his office, you are going to hurt the country'.
3. National security, international relation and pivotal decisions are so much dependent on PM that he cannot be questioned till he demits office.

Nothing can be more hilarious, ridiculous and bizarre than above arguments. Nation cannot afford to have a PM against whom there are charges of corruption which have been accepted by court. When prima facie of corruption is established against the PM, he becomes threat to national security. Hence he must leave the office. In 1975 when Mrs. Indira Gandhi lost to Allahabad High Court, she should have resigned immediately. Instead she declared emergency and changed constitution through 39th and 42nd amendment to elevate her above law. Let me give you list of Japanese PMs who had to resign due to corruption, but neither did government collapse nor there any danger to national security.

1. Kakuei Tanaka (1972-74) resigned over Lockheed bribery case
2. Noboru Takeshita (1987-89) - resigned over insider trading
3. Sōsuke Uno (1989-89) - resigned over sex scandal
4. Morihiro Hosokawa (1993-94) - resigned over misuse of personal fund

Let me tell you very bluntly that any self respecting PM would have resigned in 2G scam. Dr. Singh deliberately tried to bury the scam under the carpet. How many times he said in the parliament that Raja is innocent? 2G scam shattered the integrity of PM. Dr. Manmohan Singh may not be financially benefitted, but allowing Raja to loot the country ensured that DMK does not withdraw support from UPA government. Let me remind you that TT Krishnamachari resigned as finance minister in 1957 over the alleged sale of fraudulent shares to LIC. There was no direct evidence against him, but he took moral responsibility because scam happened under his very nose. PM asked Raja to auction spectrum and Raja overruled him that lead to one of the worst scam ever. PM cannot escape responsibility. So. for the interest of the country PM should be under Lokpal.

I listened your conversation with Karan in Devil's advocate. Many of your comments are confusing and unacceptable.

1. In the context of 20,000 officers to support Lokpal you said 'If you give too much power at the lower level they will misuse it'. MPs also misuse MPLAD. It does not mean that MPLAD scheme should be scrapped. Should we abolish Panchayat system then?

2. You said 'RTI has gone long way in accountability at the lowest level'. RTI can only expose scam. It can't prosecute the concerned person. When RTI exposed CBI lie on the expense of Bofors investigation which was projected as 250 crore against real expense of 5 crore, concerned CBI officials were not investigated for twisting data.

3. You candidly admitted that it is not possible to find 20,000 officers to support Lokpal. This is a shocking statement on part of law minister. Cancer of corruption is so deep rooted in our country that you cannot trust anybody. For God's sake please do not under estimate our young generation. They are as honest as you and more determined to fight corruption than PM.

4. You talked about de-centralization of power. Government does not want to include below class 'A' officers under Lokpal. My suggestion would be to form two more institutes like Lokpal to look into corruption of police forces and other government officials.

5. You said Lokpal is a quasi judiciary body. Authority to investigate wrong doing of judges cannot make Lokpal quasi judicial. High court and Supreme court may be kept outside the purview of Lokpal. But lower courts where corruption is rampant may be brought under Lokpal.

There is no point in going into ego clash with Anna and his team. Land Acquisition bill is also drafted by civil society under the banner of Sonia's national advisory council. Anna's team hasn't drafted anything which is malicious, inappropriate or threat to national security.

Lokpal bill‏

Email sent on 20-Jun-2011

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.

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.

Lokpal Bill

Email sent on 3-Jun-2011
Dear PM,

What is going on in this country. We are caught between incompetent politics, tsunami of scams and desperate attempt by civil society to change the system. In my view we are heading towards anarchy. It is your responsibility to tell the country who is PM of India? 2G scam is mind blowing.

It is dangerous trend that government is yielding under pressure from civil society and religious leaders. Since people lost faith in elected members, government has no option but to bend to their demand. Government must take decisive action to restore the confidence of people. I think

1. If we give complete autonomy to CBI (like election commission) with power to prosecute PM and Chief Justice of India, we do not need Lokpal.
2. Today Police commissioner cannot be prosecuted without permission of CM, Judges cannot be prosecuted without CJI nod, CM cannot be prosecuted without Governor permission. Scrap all these non sense laws.
3. recruit more officers in CBI so that they can handle at least 50,000 new cases every year.
4. To speed up prosecution
1. increase number of judges
2. Extend retirement age of judges to 75 years to reduce shortfall of competent judges
3. Setup special court to prosecute politicians, judges, police and government officials
4. legalize lie detector, brain mapping and other technologies. Anybody failing on lie detector must resign from his/her post immediately.
5. Take fresh mandate from people. Call for a mid term election. Anybody failing on lie detector cannot file nomination.

For too long you have outsourced your control and authority to your colleagues. You got to speak to media and people every week. Why can't you address nation every week through radio and TV? For God's sake please do not live in denial mode. Do not protect Maran or any other corrupt ministers. Maran must go. Stick to the principle of honesty and integrity like Mahatma Gandhi. Do not bother about PM's chair. UPA returned to power in 2009 because of your firm stand on 123 agreement. Image of India is getting shattered by waves of scam.

Please come to twitter. You will know how people think about you, opposition, UPA and government.

Finally when there is a strong disagreement between government and Anna, why can't Pranab Mukherjee and his team put their comments on Jan Lokpal bill drafted by Anna's team and place the draft bill to Parliament and circulate it to Chief Ministers and media for open debate. 

Concerns on Lokpal Bill

Email sent on 11-Apr-2011
Dear Mrs Bedi,

My concerns are

1. Inclusion of father and son is not right. We criticize Congress so much for dynastic politics and now we are dependent on dynasty. I heard Anna's defense in CNN IBN in his interview with Rajdeep. I don't find it convincing at all. Shanti Bhusan was not part of the panel who drafted Jan Lokpal bill (as mentioned in Indiaagainstcorruption.org site). Moreover he is too old to be co-chairman. He is 86 years old! The reason Anna does not want to bring other members of civil society in the panel is to avoid difference in opinion within his team members. His argument is that those who drafted the bill should be in the panel to defend it. I think P Bhusan and Justice Santosh Hegde should be good enough to defend every line of the bill. Our emotion fluctuates too quickly. On 9-Apr Sobhaa De Tweeted 'If anybody in India deserves a Bharat Ratna it is Anna '. Same Shobhaa tweeted today 'Most critical time for democracy starts now. Avoid dynasty in Lokpal implementation. Stay sane. Act coolly. Euphoria over. It's time 4 maturity'
2. Anna also said that it is not a question of representation, it is level of expertise. In that case Kejriwal and Anna should not be in the panel because they are not legal expert. 
3. Yesterday Anna asked every CM to emulate Modi and Nitish Kumar. I am shocked that he praised Modi who is a serial killer. No congress sympathizer or Muslims would believe that Modi is a good man in spite of the fact whatever development work he undertook for Gujarat. Anna must be extremely careful what he says. Any loose talk by Anna and his team will create confusion among supporters of anti corruption movement and media will not waste any time to pick those comments up.
4. I was watching Kejriwal in Karan's Devil's Advocate show. He is a very simple and nice man. But Karan ripped him apart with his sharp tongue. Kejriwal could not answer any of the allegations leveled by Karan. Can Kejriwal win arguments with Sibal and Pranab? We need a person of weight like Ratan Tata or Narayan Murthy in the panel.
5. Suddenly people have started using Anna for their own publicity. This will cause distraction for Anna. IIPM too quick to announce Rs 1 crore for Anna. He must be careful about these people.
6. Many people started calling him modern day Gandhi. With all due respect to Anna, he is not. In this regard Rajdeep Sardesai's tweets are quite relevant. He tweeted 'media has done well by backing the need for a strong lok pal bill. we will now do a disservice by seeing Anna as a mahatma'. He went on to tweet 'Too many middle class heroes get destroyed by being made cult figures. let anna remain anna, not mahatma. gnight.'
7. As emotion settled down and people got the time to read the Jan Lokpal bill between lines and more and more analysis are coming in the media, people pointing flaws in the draft of Jan Lokpal bill. So we need a strong orator to debate with representative of government panel. Government is determined to table the bill in the parliament by 30-Jun-11 whether there is an agreement or not and take full credit for the bill.
8. Let me ask you a hypothetical question. If Nehru, Patel, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Ambedkar returns today, do you still need Lokpal Bill?
9. RTI is a very powerful tool for common man. But it couldn't stop corruption. However election commission was able to root out riiging in the election process. If CBI is made as autonomous as election commission with a power to prosecute any minister including PM, do we need a lokpal bill? We will get the answer to all these questions in next 2 months.

Finally Lokpal bill should be drafted with a clear objective of sending India's top 100 corrupt people (everyone knows who they are) to jail by mid 2013 in a democratic process. At the same time bill must not try to undermine authority of parliament and supreme court.

Jan Lokpal Bill

Email sent on 15-Apr-2011
Dear PM,

We should not rush to pass a half baked Jan Lokpal bill. It should be intensely debated by general public, civil society and media. I have following proposals.

1. Entire proceedings should be telecast live or recorded for greater transparency. Video of the proceedings should be uploaded in the site of ministry of law or YouTube so that people can watch it after office hours.
2. Government should form a 50 member review committee consisting of celebrities from all over India from all sections of the civil society. They will review each line of the draft Jan Lokpal bill prepared by representatives of government and Anna Hazare's team.
3. Government should create a site where people can give their feedback. Drafting panel must ensure that they read each and every feedback even if the number goes up to 50,000+. Any feedback rejected by the panel must be given a reason for rejection. If a feedback is accepted partially or wholly, a reference of the section of the Jan Lokpal bill should be given.
4. Drafting panel must provide a clear guideline on how to deal with perceived corrupt people like Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha, Lalu, Mayawati, Pawar and many others. The very objective of this bill is to send corrupt people in Jail in two years.

Hunger strike by Shri Anna Hazare to introduce Jan Lokpal bill‏

Email sent on 5-Apr-2011
Dear PM,

You said to Shri Hazare that 'I appreciate and share your concern on corruption'. But you will not take any action against corrupt people and allow your party and coalition partners to loot the country. It is bizarre. Corruption is at every level of our society and we need a effective law to put corrupt people behind bar as quickly as possible.  Rajiv Gandhi introduced anti defection law which had so many loop holes that till today it could not stop horse trading. We need independent and autonomous investigative agency free from any kind of political influence. CNN IBN nailed CBI lie on Bofors. CBI told Honourable Supreme Court that it spent Rs 250 crore till 2005 when actual spending was Rs 5 crore. CBI did so under pressure from you.

I am sorry to say that integrity of Shri Hazare is far more than yours. Your only concern is the interest of Gandhi family, Congress party and PM's chair. The reason that you don't want to accept Lokpal bill as proposed by Shri Hazare and other in full is that the proposed bill does not suit our corrupt politicians.

It has been alleged by India against corruption group that 'The latest draft of Lokpal bill prepared by the present UPA government is a complete eyewash. It seeks to completely insulate politicians from any kind of action against them.' I can't agree more with them when I see some of the malicious clauses in the bill as compiled by the group 

• Lokpal will not have any power to either initiate action suo motu in any case or even receive complaints of corruption from general public. The general public will make complaints to the speaker of Lok Sabha or chairperson of Rajya Sabha. Only those complaints forwarded by Speaker of Lok Sabha/ Chairperson of Rajya Sabha to Lokpal would be investigated by Lokpal - Lokpal should be like CBI with proper infrastructure.
• Lokpal, after enquiry in any case, will forward its report to the competent authority. The competent authority will have final powers to decide whether to take action on Lokpal’s report or not. In the case of cabinet ministers, the competent authority is Prime Minister. In the case of PM and MPs the competent authority is Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha - Just scrap this stupid clause.
• Lokpal should have power to investigate, arrest and prosecute any MP, MLA, Panchayat, municipality member, police officer, judges and bureaucrats
• There is a strong punishment for “frivolous” complaints. If any complaint is found to be false and frivolous, Lokpal will have the power to send the complainant to jail through summary trial but if the complaint were found to be true, the Lokpal will not have the power to send the corrupt politicians to jail - It is a draconian clause. Should be scrapped.
• Lokpal will have jurisdiction only on MPs, ministers and PM. It will not have jurisdiction over officers - It must have jurisdiction over any elected member in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Assembly, Municipality, Panchyat, police, judges and bureaucrats, acting or retired.
• Lokpal will consist of three members, all of them being retired judges - Each state should have Lokpal consisting of at least 20 members. Please don't forget that we have half million acting and retired corrupt politicians, police officers, bureaucrats and judges. Members should be not only from retired judges but also from other background.
• The selection committee consists of Vice President, PM, Leaders of both houses, Leaders of opposition in both houses, Law Minister and Home minister - Medmbers of Lokpal should be selected by panel of 50 non political celebrities like Sachin Tendulkar, Kiran Bedi, P C Sarkar, Amartya Sen and many others.
• Whereas a time limit of six months to one year has been prescribed for Lokpal to enquire, however, subsequently, there is no time limit prescribed for completion of trial - We should make heavy use of technology like brain mapping which should be accepted as evidence in the court of law. 80% of the trials should be completed in 1 year. Remaining 20% may be completed maximum of 2 years.
• Lokpal will have the powers to investigate any kind crime committed by politicians, police, judges and bureaucrats be it money laundering, harassment of whistleblowers, failure to public grievance redressal system to name few.
• Punishment should range from jail term of 5 to 25 years, freezing of assets to recover stolen money, hefty fines, demotion etc 

Sir, Corruption perception index of India for 2010 is only 3.3. We are 87th most corrupt country in the world. In 2009 CPI was 3.4. If you don't want to introduce lokpal bill as amended by India against corruption group, what is your strategy to improve CPI to 7 in next two years?

Thanks Satyaki
+91 98369 44557