Finally - Indian Parliament passes Lokpal Bill

Finally! Yes finally - almost four decades - Indian Parliament finally clears the Lokpal Bill.

The demand for an ombudsman to investigate and punish errant public servants was first raised by Jaiprakash Narayan in the seventies. Jayprakash Narayan popularly referred to as JP had launched a movement to fight against corruption and misrule is 1974.

The demand for Lokpal once again picked up steam in 2010 when Shanti Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and others came together under the stewardship of Kisan Baburao (Anna) Hazare of Nanded.

Anna has overall sat on hunger strike 18 times out of which the last four fasts have been for getting the Jan Lokpal Bill passed by parliament.

Anna's Fasts for Lokpal

April 2011 -Anna fasted for 5 day at New Delhi.

August 2011 - Anna fasted for 13 days again at New Delhi. This proved to be a turning point in Indian politics. People came to the streets in all parts of the country in support of Anna Hazare and Lokpal. Prime Minister and the whole parliament came together and promised Anna that the Lokpal would be passed at the earliest.

December 2011 - At Mumbai - Anna fasted for 2 days.

December 2013 - Probably the last fast by Anna for Lokpal Bill. This was Anna's 18th fast in all and lasted for 9 days. This time the government bowed and the Lokpal Bill as passed by both houses of parliament.

But by this time, Arvind Kejriwal who had been a key person in Anna's Lokpal campaign had left his side. Kejriwal had formed his own political party. His party had contested in the Delhi State Polls - an election in which the Congress Party was miserably trounced.

The Bill

Although the Bill passed by parliament is not exactly what Anna Hazare had set out for, yet Anna has accepted the Bill in its current form with the confidence that coming parliamentarians will introduce modifications based the experiences gathered.

Anna Hazare starts indefinite fast for Jan Lokpal Bill

Amidst all the political activity of the recent days, Anna Hazare has started his indefinite hunger strike demanding the government to fulfill its promise to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament.

This time Anna Hazare has chosen his home town, Ralegan Siddhi, as the venue for his fast.

More than a year has passed since the Prime Minister had personally written to the veteran social activist last year requesting him to end his fast after the parliament had passed a resolution to the effect.

Some political observers are advising the Congress-led UPA government at Delhi to take cognizance of the huge defeat the Congress party has faced in the recently concluded elections and that it had better pay heed to the long pending demand of the people for a strong Jan Lokpal Bill, or be ready for an even worse fate in the forth-coming general elections.

Intentions behind the censorship controversy of Kapil Sibal

I seriously doubt Kapil Sibal's intentions in wanting to censor the content on social networking sites.

I feel, the government wants to try and control backlash from the people when Anna Hazare launches his next round of protest against the government on the issue of Jan-Lokpal.

After all, it appears that the standing committee will be presenting a draft that will go against he "sentiment of the parliament" that had accepted in principle the points raised by Anna Hazare and his Jan Lokpal Bill. I feel, that he thinks a controversy of this kind will distract the people frequenting these sites.

We shall know the truth by this time tomorrow, when Abhishek Singhvi will have presented the report of the standing committee before the house.

Anna Hazare takes the Congress Party head-on

Anna Hazare's anti-corruption campaign has started becoming an anti-Congress campaign.

Anna had earlier said that he will campaign against the Congress Party in the forthcoming elections if it does not bring in the Jan-Lokpal Bill during the winter session of the parliament.

It seems that he has started a precursor to this in the Hisar parliamentary polls.

It is reported that Anna's aides have left for Hisar with a CD, that has a 10 minute video of Anna's appeal asking the voters to ensure and support only the candidate who is willing to support the Jan Lokpal Bill when and if it is tabled in the parliament during the winter session.

The non-violent anti-corruption crusader Anna is not willing to sit back and trust the Congress party to keep up promises. He apparently feels it necessary to keep up the pressure on the Government, after all as he says he feels cheated by the way the Congress led UPA government has reacted to his anti-corruption campaign right from its beginning.

Judging by the way the people had come out to support Anna's anti-corruption movement in the country,  I feel that the Congress should not take Anna's request for Jan-Lokpal Bill casually. It is time for the nations oldest party to get into damage control mode and take steps to win back public support, after all  it has lost a lot of credibility in the last few months.

Why the government is not approving the Jan-Lokpal Bill?

What is Jan-Lokpal Bill?
Jan Lokpal - Anna Hazare and his team claims that this will the strongest deterrent so far for anyone indulging in corruption in India.

In fact, Manmohan Singh's UPA led government at Delhi appears to be ready to risk its rule in Delhi to ensure that Jan-Lokpal bill does not see the light of day. One wonders why, I asked this question to many of my acquaintances, and below is the answer I liked best, and I quote.....

How can anybody be accepted to approve a bill
that can send him to prison?

and I feel this chap is right.

It is a common belief most politicians in our country are corrupt. How else can they afford to spend crores on their election campaign for each election after election? Most of the politicians who are being asked to pass the jan-lokpal bill in parliament will be prime candidates for investigation.

In other words, an effective Lokpal Bill will mean a prison sentence for most of our politicians - and this is one thing they are not going to approve.

So once again... what is Jan-Lokpal Bill?
Jan Lokpal - A bill that the UPA led government is his trying hard to derail.
Jan Lokpal - A bill that even the opposition parties are not willing to support in its present form.