12 days, 288 long hours and ultimately the fast of Anna came to an end. 27th August, 2011 would be written with golden letters in the history of India. The government had to give up to the just demands of the Team Anna. People's voice and protest against the government bill won under the umbrella of Team Anna. The Parliament passed a resolution accepting the 3 crucial demands of Anna:
- To include lower bureaucracy into the ambit of LokPal
- To establish Lokayuktas at the state level
- To establish Citizen's Charter for grievance redressal
These 3 points are very important for establishing a strong LokPal. First one deals with the bureaucracy especially at the lower level where most of the corruption which the common men have to face. A watch dog on this is a must to remove corruption. Second is to establish Lokayuktas at the state level on the lines of LokPal. An ombudsman at the state level is a must and only having one at the central level help in eradicating the menace of corruption. Third demand is to have a proper mechanism where citizens can log in their grievances. Their grievances should be looked into with a definite time frame. For this a proper institution needs to be established.
This is just the first step and a long road is yet to be travelled. A mere accepting of resolution won't guarantee that these demands would be accepted at the Bill. There is still a long way to go for this. Like Team Anna, we the common men need to be always vigilant in this regard.
For the people of India, a new Mahatma is born. He has again shown the people what non-violent way of protest can achieve.
***WE ALL SUPPORT ANNA. LONG LIVE ANNA.***
India has always been a land of protests and strikes. Political parties are always one up to call for strikes and mass protests. These protests and strikes lead to a loss of crores of rupees to the economy. These parties don't give a damn care about this. To them protests are a way to express their disapproval of the ruling party's governance and policies. They regard it as a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution of India. Though they would also carry about with the same policies as carried out by the previous government with only difference is that the signatory would change.
But irony of the matter is that these political parties forget about the right to protest when civilian does it against them. At that time it is being treated as a breaking of law and order situation. They try all means to curb the civilians right to protest. The two most recent events of such has been the way the government handled Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare incidents. In one case, they choose mid night, when all were sleeping to lathi charge at the innocent people and use tear gas. While on the other case they arrested even before the peaceful protest for implementing Jan LokPal Bill can be started. What is more important is that these protests are significantly different from what the political parties carry about, as they often take to violent means. Moreover, these protests were also supported by the common man man who did not have any political affiliations. This is perhaps one of the biggest reasons why political parties especially the one in the government are so against it. They could feel the shrink in their support base.
So, my basic question is that has common man lost the right to protest against the unlawful actions of the government?
Are the constitutional rights only meant for politically aligned people?
These political parties and the government has a lot to answer to the people of this nation...
Close to 50 years and so many governments, but LokPal is yet to see the light of the day. There is some mysterious energy or power that is always preventing this LokPal Bill to be passed or framed. The first time it was perhaps in the 1960s that the demand for LokPal Bill was mooted. But we are yet to get anything such.
So many governments have place so many drafts of LokPal in parliament but no government was serious enough to convert it into a Bill or Law. But recently it attained widespread publicity and headlines in news because of the movement started by Anna Hazare and his team for to force the government to pass the bill in the parliament. Anna Hazare, a Padma Bhushan, ex-Army man, a Gandhian, a social activist, perhaps adjectives would fall short to describe such a person. He launched a nation wide movement in the month of April, 2011 for the support of LokPal Bill, a draft of which was also prepared by them. He received massive support from walks of life.
The government being under pressure due to the massive support of the common people included them into the joint drafting committee of the LokPal that was to be placed in the parliament. But on all contentious issues like including of Prime Minister or Judges in the ambit of LokPal, it was the government which had the last say. The proper justifications of the civil society members demanding to include them under the ambit of LokPal was never given a serious thought.
The government and the congress ridiculing the demands of Anna and his team by saying that this would lead to a JokePal. They are vehemently opposing inclusion of Prime Minister under LokePal. Perhaps, they have their own vested interests. This government being involved in so many in so many scams and corruptions, it is definitely not at their best of interests to have a strong Ombudsman Bill. They always trying to keep some loopholes in the bill. What is more important to note that they are actually trying to place a JokePal in the parliament that would perhaps have no real powers. It would turn up to be another government machinery that stands and sits at mercy of the ruling party and government.
