21.12.11

Two minute noodle: Lokpal Bill

If we go by Team Anna logic, then the Opposition and independent agencies should be running the government. Forget everything else, it would spell the end of a real Opposition as it should be - to question, debate and give a contrarian point of view and not fight over the spoils of who gets to swivel in the chair.

If the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) comes within the Lokpal ambit - which the government draft rightly does not allow for - then all investigation will be left to whims and fancies and further delays or worse. The CBI is not the ISI.

6 comments:

  1. I feel deeply moved by the popular non-violent response to Anna's Satyagraha though I have serious reservations about the kind of Lokpal they are advocating.

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  2. I'm unable to make sense of your 2-minute noodle. Kindly help me.

    1. If probing corruption charges is "running the govt", then shouldn't judging crimes (domain of judiciary) be also considered 'running the govt'?

    Why do we then need an independent judiciary? After all, don't the long delays in providing justice prove that our judicial system runs on whims and fancies of judges? So should judiciary be bought under the ambit of govt?

    Using the same logic, should we do away with independence of institutions like EC, CAG etc and bring them under the ambit of govt?

    If CAG, which performs a function similar to CBI (i.e. investigating accounting frauds) deserves independence and autonomy from govt, why does CBI not deserve autonomy from govt?

    Moreover, our govt doesn't really need CBI for investigations. Don't we have state polices directly under the authority of state home ministries to do investigations for general crimes? The only reason CBI was formed was because of lack of trust in the regular investigative agencies in highly sensitive & political cases. If CBI has been proved incapable of investigating sensitive, political cases due to its lack of autonomy, what's the justification of it staying under the control of govt?

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  3. F&F:

    Non-violence that is rigid is a sort of violence. Think about long-term ramifications.

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  4. Eklavya:

    If probing corruption charges is "running the govt", then shouldn't judging crimes (domain of judiciary) be also considered 'running the govt'?

    No. The Lokpal essentially wishes to correct corrupt practices within the government and administration. This is the executive wing. The judiciary is separate, and should be. (It isn’t always, but it does not run the government, and in fact gets influenced by it.) Indeed, there are whims and fancies, but the defence does not try and act as the prosecution, and that would be my analogy for the role of the Opposition vs the government.

    Ideally, I would not want a dispersed Lokpal Bill at all. The CBI is the visible investigating agency. If we seek to make everything ‘indepenedent’, although in principle and often in practice it is, then we lose the concept of governance. Who does the government turn to? Why can the agency not be made answerable from outside?

    I am amazed that you believe the Anna version is going to result in independence. You will only have a larger committee with no centifugal force, however vile it can be. This is not anti-establishment but just two establishments sitting and playing games over their moral superiority.

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  5. What the Comman man is witnessing is is not a slugfest but a war between Italian Mafia backed Congress led by their leader Sonia Gandhi and "Aam Admi" led by their illustrious 74 old Nationalist leader Shri Anna Hazare.

    Now, when HM MR. Chhidu is mocking UP CM and asking from where will the money come from for division of UP state, she must promptly remind him that as when as FM in 2008 made the nation to suffer loss of Rs.1.76Lacs Crores in 2G Scam and his valued Colleague FM Mr. Pranab is raising hands in Parliament and telling the nation that nothing much can be done to bring the Black Money stashed abroad, then from where he can expect the funds to fulfill the aspiration of "Aam Admi" of UP and other states of Union.

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  6. Aarya:

    The FMs, past and present, will not become answerable with such agitations. They must be, and there are scams preceding 2G.

    How many aam aadmis are with Anna?

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