We’ve been here before

First, there’s the overwhelming deja vu. The clearing by the Cabinet of the Lokpal Bill sets the stage for yet another outing of what m...

First, there’s the overwhelming deja vu. The clearing by the Cabinet of the Lokpal Bill sets the stage for yet another outing of what must surely rank as the longest-pending piece of legislation in our country. The proposal to set up an institutional watchdog to check corruption in high places has had a remarkably tortuous career from the time the Bill was first introduced in Parliament in 1968. Over the years, the loud efforts by successive governments to talk up the legislation without ever seeing it through into the statute book have imbued it with a powerful symbolism. It has come to signify the unwillingness of the country’s political class to take action against corruption in high places. It has embodied the system’s resistance to scrutiny and accountability.

Having said that, it must be pointed out that just passing the Lokpal Bill after all these years cannot be deemed to be achievement enough. Questions must be asked in and outside of Parliament, and a public debate initiated, to refine its provisions. Is the Lokpal’s ambit broad enough? Is it given the statutory and financial teeth, and the structural autonomy, that alone can enable it to function with credibility? Or will it be just another ineffectual gesture, like the Lok Ayukta in the states? The experience of the state-level ombudsman has been an unequivocally unhappy one. Barring too few exceptions, the Lok Ayuktas have been rendered virtually impotent by little power, limited funds and overbearing political interference. When they have not willingly succumbed to the diktat of the government of the day, that is. While the cases of wrongdoing and corruption that demand their attention have multiplied over the years, sadly the Lok Ayuktas still do not do anything efficacious in response.

It may not be a good idea, therefore, to include the office of the prime minister in the Lokpal’s purview. It must first be proved that the Lokpal is going to be more than an institution that will play host to political vendettas when it is effective, and feebly exhort the political class into shame when it is not.