It is a relief that the government has finalised the Lokpal Bill after months of discussion and controversy. The bill appears a reasonable reconciling of various viewpoints that have been thrown up on key questions. Compromises do not fully satisfy anyone, but the recrafted bill does appear to reflect enough give and take. Further chiselling is possible when the bill is taken up and debated in Parliament. Nevertheless, the obduracy of the Anna Hazare group remains, as it warns of a fresh hungerstrike next week.
Team Anna is unhappy that the bill does not hand over administrative control of the CBI to the proposed Lokpal, and that the government proposes a separate Citizens’ Charter and Grievance Redress law rather than have this dovetailed with the proposed Lokpal. This is a pity. Insistence on the Citizens’ Charter as part of the Lokpal is decidedly churlish. It will be regrettable if the BJP chooses to take its cue from the Hazare camp and adopts the tactic of walking out when it comes to voting on the ombudsman law.
Except in the 1968 version of the Lokpal legislation, that was approximately fashioned on the New Zealand model, the Congress Party has fought shy of having the Prime Minister under the Lokpal. Several constitutional and legal experts believe that placing the PM under an authority other than Parliament can potentially undermine the constitutional order. Nevertheless, the Congress gave up its earlier reservations and brought the PM under the Lokpal’s scrutiny with the caveats that, in fact, the BJP has been espousing in recent times.
The Anna Hazare camp wants the CBI to be under the dministrative control of the Lokpal. This is an untenable view. The officials of the Central investigative agency are government employees who mostly belong to different police cadres. How can they conceivably be under the control of any other authority? If a CBI official is accused of corruption, he can appropriately be brought before the Lokpal, just as any other Group A or B official can be. It is unfortunate that the Hazare campaign has not fought for an autonomous CBI in terms of working latitude, and has sought to engage in a turf battle (government versus Lokpal).
Although this is not spelt out, the real cause of the ire of the Hazare cohorts may be that the government bill seeks to make the Lokpal accountable. This is to be done by a removal process to be initiated under the signature of 100 MPs. Different methods may be proposed for this, but there is no question that the Lokpal has to be an entity accountable to the people of India through Parliament, just as members of the superior
judiciary are.