I Support the Citizen Ombudsman

While civil society is mostly ecstatic about participation of the citizen sector in drafting the Jan Lok Pal (Citizen Ombudsman) Bill, intellectuals have an issue that this movement is "subversive of representative democracy", with others going on to accuse the civilian panelists of the committee of being power-hungry publicity seekers. 


Irrespective of the intellectual viewpoint, I believe what has happened is a positive step for a number of reasons.

• We send elected representatives to parliament to enact our will, and given that they are not experts, they consult subject matter experts to draft bills. Civil society has participated in the writing of other bills (such as the Maharashtra RTI Act to name one) in the past, so there is already a precedent. (At the time of the those other bills -- none of the intellectuals raised objections about their voter rights being trampled upon)
• This bill is unique in that it is asking thieves to police themselves. A tall (if not possible) ask of people who have already shown themselves to be of poor moral standing (viz., politicians). If, despite the scams, you need further proof, please read ex-Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy's statement.
• Left to the government alone, the Lok Pal Bill will be a waste of the paper it gets printed on, being advisory in nature and not having powers to either recover embezzled funds or send the guilty to prison.
• We need to give people the tools to fight corruption NOW, not in some uncertain future. For each day that the corrupt thrive and siphon off hard-earned taxpayer money, more and more children go naked, hungry and without an education to give them hope of escaping poverty. Each day that corruption goes unchecked further calcifies the "ovarian lottery effect" that Warren Buffet has spoken at length about.
• The Jan Lok Pal Bill will be passed (if at all) in Parliament by the "elected" representatives of the people, so if the intellectuals feel very strongly that we don't need an anti-corruption tool, they are free to lobby their MPs to vote against it.

This of course, is not the end. The bill has a long and arduous journey before it turns into law. It *will* get watered down in the drafting committee and may even get thrown out of parliament (every corrupt politician's secret hope).


Once enacted it will not lead to a magical end to all corruption. What it will do is provide the people of India with a powerful tool with which to attempt to fight corruption, in much the same way as the RTI. It will also give some semblance of hope to *other* bills like the RTE, in that the funds set aside might just end up getting used for their stated purpose.


I support the Jan Lok Pal Bill.


PS: An interesting counterpoint to the intellectual view is here.


PPS: A debate around whether the civil society should be drafting laws. Harish Salvi wonders why the masters (people) are faulted for telling the servant (elected representatives) who to do. Sandhya Jain claims Anna Hazare's fast was a hoax!