Analysis of Jan Lokpal Bill 2011

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"
- Lord Acton
Before reading my comments on Jan Lokpal Bill please read the following links.
Democracy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Constitution of India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Separation of powers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I hope you have read above links and digested all the information therein, if not please do not read further it will be worthless.
Download copy of both the acts from following link and study.
http://www.indiaagainstcorruption.org/downloads.html
My opinion:
Jan Lokpal Bill 2011: Undemocratic, Anti-constitutional, Unpractical, Against Natural Justice, Dangerous.
Lokpal Bill 2011: A Good Start, needs some improvement, some clauses of Jan Lokpal bill may be incorporated.
Comments regarding: Jan Lokpal VS Govt. Lokpal available at IAC website.

1. Directed against those who raise their voice against corruption?
My View: Scams belongs to higher bureaucracy and politicians. Private trusts and similar organizations are breeding ground of black money. Including all Govt. employees under purview of lokpal will overburden the lokpal and special courts. Overburdened investigation agencies and courts are in the root of corruption in India. Low level of corruption can be handled with existing anti-corruption system.
2. Provides illegitimate protection to the corrupt officials?
My View: It should be noted that Govt. lokpal bill deals with high rank officer and politician, if a person or agency make many fake complaints against them, essential functions of Govt. like defence, law enforcement and health services will compromise which will hurt ultimately common people and country as a whole. Therefore, severe penalty for fake complaints is basic necessity. Providing legal assistance to its employee is not illegitimate, we are also providing legal assistance to Ajmal Kasab.
3. Pro-accused investigation process?
My View: We should not forget the word ‘Natural Justice’.
4. Critical Issues –Prime Minister
My View: If all the Ministers and Bureaucrats are honest how a Prime Minister can do corruption I cannot understand. Whether including PM in Lokpal will remove all corruption from India?
5. Critical Issues – Judiciary
My View: Independent judiciary is basic necessity of any democratic system. For details please follow the linkIndependence Of Judiciary In India : A Critical Analysis
6. Critical Issues – MPs
My View: If you have read the wikipedia links, you can understand why public representatives are given this immunity in constitution of India. For all other matter they already in bill vide the clause 17(b) of Govt. bill.
7. Critical Issues – Grievance Redressal
My View: Citizen’s Charter drafted in Jan Lokpal bill is not practically feasible. Critical Issues – CBI
My View: Good point. Govt. should consider for this.


8. Critical Issues – Accountability
My View : I think Govt. is more accountable to public than supreme court judges or other higher bureaucrats.
9. Critical Issues – Method of Enquiry
My View: No more TADA please.
10. Critical Issues – Lokayukta
My View: It is an issue of Center State relationship. Matter should be decided with consultation of State Govts.
11. Critical Issues – Whistleblower Protection
My View: Proposed law should be discussed and improved.
12. Critical Issues – Special Benches in HC
My View: Thousands of innocent people are imprisoned and waiting for result of their trail in various courts. We need to give them first priority.
13. Critical Issues – CrPC
My View: I could not find any clause in Govt’s bill which states that after court’s decision concerned minister’s approval is required for removing the convicted public servant. We should also keep in mind that Govt.’s various departments have their special rule, regulations and procedures of working which are fully understood by concerned department only. Lokpal officer are not likely to be specialist of these intricacies of Govt.’s working.
14. Critical Issues – Punishment
My View: Govt. should consider adding clause of higher punishment for high rank official and Business entities. However, (clause 23(4) of Jan Lokpal bill) we cannot ban entire company if an officer is found guilty. For example if an officer of multinational companies like TATA, Reliance, Ranbaxy or Wipro who have thousands of employees is convicted then we cannot ban entire enterprise from public contracts. If this happens soon their will be no company for making contracts with Govt.
15. Critical Issues –Financial Independence
My View: Finance ministry is accountable to Parliament, and Parliament is accountable to public. No problem.
16. Critical Issues –Prevent ongoing Corruption
My View: Govt. should consider for this.
17. Critical Issues –Tap Phones
My View: If all lokpal officer are empowered of taping phones of our Prime Minister, Defence Minister, Finance Minister, Home Minister, Heads of our Army, Air Force and Navy, what will happen a lay man can guess. However, power of phone taping of public servants not holding critical offices may be given to Lokpal.
18. Critical Issues –Delegation of Powers
My View: See the clause 37 of Govt’s Lokpal bill.
19. Critical Issues –NGOs
My View: I think Govt. should include religious trusts also under purview of Lokpal. Trusts holding property more than a specific amount should be considered as company and taxed accordingly. It is surprising that Jan Lokpal Bill excludes all private trusts which are frequently used to convert black money to white money.
20. Critical Issues –False, Frivolous & Vexatious Complaints
My View: Read my view under item no. 2.

Illustration of My Opinion :

• Un-Democratic: Lack of public accountability. Public cannot remove corrupt Lokpal/Lokpal officers. It also violates many fundamental rights.
• Anti-Constitution: Against the principle of ‘Separation of Power’ and ‘Independent Judiciary’ implemented in our constitution.
• Un-Practical: Citizen Charter is totally unpractical. Govt.’s functions are not like computer processes which can be clearly defined and completed with specific time frame. Adequate resources are also not available.
• Against Natural Justice: Lokpal is given judicial power but accused public servants are not given the proper opportunity to defend.
• Dangerous: This will break down our constitution, political system and ultimately democratic system. India is world’s largest democratic country with a large population of ill-educated and uneducated.

A Particular Scenario: Suppose an industrialist has corrupted our duly searched and selected Lokpal members (For Industrialists, who can buy our whole political class it will not difficult to buy 5 or 6 persons). This industrialist who is grabbing land or doing some other activity not acceptable by public in your constituency, again this will not a big problem for him in view of loopholes of various current rule regulation and our intelligent advocate class. Then what are your options? You can approach your local MP, no he is under lokpal and cannot face the unlimited power of lokpal. You can cry for help from court, no all judges are under purview of lokpal. You may be thinking that you can remove corrupt lokpal through simple application in Supreme Court as per provision of Jan Lokpal, again no, there are certain specified condition only on the basis of those conditions lokpal can be removed by supreme court. For common men of Tripura, Tmilnadu or any other remote part of country it will not be an easy matter to fight case in Supreme Court sitting at New Delhi.

THEN WHY ADVOCATES AND OTHER CLASS OF EDUCATED PEOPLE IS SUPPORTING JAN LOKPAL BILL 2011?

Answer of this question lays in our defected education system. By our education we are manufacturing ‘EFFICIENT TOOLS’ for specific jobs but not qualified ‘USERS/MASTERS’ of these tools. If you want ‘knee replacement’ use tool named ‘Orthopedician’ if you want to remove cataract from your eyes use the tool ‘Opthamologist’ if you want to construct 100 floor building use the tool ‘Civil Engineer’, if you want to create heavy duty electric motor use ‘Electrical Engineer’ if you want fight a criminal case, civil case or finance related cases in courts we also have specialized tools of laws pertaining to these cases named Advocates, and so on. We have every type of very efficient tools for our various specialized needs but when the question of driving or guiding the country arise our toolkit immediately become useless. Due to our defected education and recruitment system of civil servants doctors and engineers performing duties like managing riots, preparing and executing our foreign policy. These fields require deep knowledge of Political Science and other Social science subjects which this class of so called educated people lacks. A doctor can treat a patient but cannot plan properly how to provide medical facilities to every countryman. A civil engineer can design or construct perfect home but cannot plan properly how to provide home to every homeless in the country. Driving the nation is far beyond their capacity. They never studied what are ideal political systems, how they are developed, how to keep them in optimum condition, what is importance of Constitution, and cannot guess what will happen if constitution bread down. They lack the knowledge of basic Political Science concepts like ‘Constitution’, ‘Democracy’, ‘State’, ‘Sovereignty’, ‘Forms of Political System’, ‘Forms of Government’, ‘Organisation of Government’, ‘Theory of Separation of Powers’, ‘Party System’, ‘Public Opinion’ and ‘Welfare State’.
‘If people want to be king they must have qualities of king’
‘Power follows the qualification. If one do not have qualification then he cannot hold the power, it will move to next hand.’
If Jan Lokpal Bill is not solution then how to remove the corruption?
My Opinion:
1. Transparency: Govt. should try to make each and every process of govt. visible to public. Target nil cases of RTI.
2. Declaration of property and liabilities by every citizen and institution of country. Registrar offices of all State Govts. should be linked and a consolidated database should be prepared, property declaration can be verified from this database.
3. Replace Specialists with Generalists by modifying our recruitment system of civil servants. Make study of Political Science compulsory for senior administrators and politicians. Bureaucrats sitting on higher posts of Govt. and who are responsible for executing various public welfare plans of Govt. never studied the concept of ‘Welfare State’.
4. Step towards Direct Democracy.
5. Look inside ourselves how much honest we are?

Solution of current crisis: IAC team should demand removal of ‘Gaddhar’ and ‘Corrupt’ Govt. and be ready to contest General Election with their ‘Honest’ and ‘Patriotic’ team. Country needs the people who are not only honest but also have the will to serve the country.
Stop! Think! Go!
Please wake up!
India’s democracy is in danger from so called ‘Professionals’ who never participate in any democratic process, never study Political Science (Subject dealing with state and political system) but only criticize the system and want to enjoy the freedom of democracy.
India against blind followers!
Jarnail Singh, M. A. (Political Science)
Email: jarnelsingh@indiatimes.com