Days after India’s capital saw people joyously throng the streets to celebrate the country’s
World Cup victory, Indians took to the same streets for another reason: their ongoing battle against corruption.
They were following the lead of war veteran and social activist Anna Hazare, who began a hunger fast on Tuesday to demand that government accept a “Jan” Lokpal Bill, or people’s version of a proposed anti-graft Ombudsman Law, which would put in place new rules to remove corrupt officials.
Attempts to draft and pass such legislation have been carrying on for decades.
Thousands of protestors including school children, college students and social workers assembled by Jantar Mantar, a centuries-old astronomical observatory in central Delhi, to support the cause. Demonstrators cheered and waved Indian flags as bonded labor organizer Swami Agnivesh, former cop Kiran Bedi and right-to-information activist Arvind Kejriwal spoke on Tuesday. Many of those attending seemed angry with the government.
Protest organizers say they are against a government-drafted version of the law—although the latest official version has not yet been made public—because they think it is full of loopholes that would allow officials to evade prosecution. Others in the crowd say they’re suspicious because they don’t know anything about the government’s proposals.
“We never got to know what the government included in that Lokpal Bill,” said Kaushilya, of the nonprofit Election India “In the Jan Lokpal Bill, at least we are aware of the contents. This bill has the voice of the poor people.”
On Wednesday, the protest continued, including in other Indian cities like Mumbai and Bangalore.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in a Monday statement, expressed disappointment that Mr. Hazare, who is 72 years old, was going ahead with the fast, but hasn’t issued a statement since the start of the street protest. Mr. Singh also said a government committee was set up to discuss the people’s draft of the ombudsman bill with Mr. Hazare, who commands enormous respect at the sole survivor of his unit in a 1965 war with Pakistan, but “the interaction proved fruitless as the activists were insisting on the Government accepting their draft in full.”
The government has been making some effort to introduce more transparency into the process. The National Advisory Council’s accountability arm met with respected social activists on the bill on Monday, and they are expected to meet again this month.
“There are some key issues that any such bill would need to address,” said M. R. Madhavan, of the Parliamentary affairs think-tank PRS Legislative Research, noting that versions of the bill have been introduced in Parliament as many as eight times, but lapsed or been withdrawn. “These include whether the bill would exempt key political functionaries such as the Prime Minister.”
India also has an existing set of federal anti-corruption and investigative bodies and the bill would need to clarify the power structure between these existing organizations and the ombudsman, Mr. Madhavan said.
Mr. Hazare says he wants the final bill to be drafted by a committee consisting equally of government officials and people from outside the government.
“Corruption has grown so much that it’s hard for the common man to live,” Mr. Hazare, told NDTV. “That’s why we want the Lokpal bill, which can reduce corruption, to be independent and not under government control.”
Mr. Hazare, who is from the western state of Maharashtra, has in the past forced the government of his state to dismiss corrupt officers and to enact a state right-to-information law that became the basis for a similar federal act, according to his website, which may be why his protest appears to have infused fresh confidence into public anti-corruption efforts.
Vimla, an activist from the Mahila Pragati Manch (Women’s Progress Group) who was at Jantar Mantar, issued a warning to the government.
“If it does not accept the recommendations of Jan Lok Pal Bill, people won’t vote for the government,” she said. “If the government goes against the people, the people will overthrow it.”
Spokesmen at the Department of Personnel and Training, which is part of the Ministry of Personnel, at the Ministry of Home Affairs and at India’s Press & Information Bureau declined to comment.
—Tripti Lahiri contributed to this post.
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