Jokepal and Lokpal

The draft Lokpal or Hazare's Jan Lokpal Bill-which will come to existence, is like asking: will present Mullaperiyar dam be abandoned or proposal for new dam be abandoned? Whatever it may be they would be of little use for the common man.

At present in India all State governments and the Central Government are surely a liability for the people. The governments intended for problem solving create new problems. A government which is not bothered of checking petrol price hike by oil companies and the consequent price rise of essential commodities is not for common people but for corporate heads.

India has celebrated when the government, along with all political parties, accepted clauses of Anna Hazare's Jan Lokpal Bill. Nevertheless the Government has gone steps backward and diluted clauses in the draft bill. If the Jan Lokpal Bill or its proxy is passed by the parliament, it won't be able to end corruption. The fight against corruption will go on and our judicial forums will be converted into places of red –tapism and absolute inefficiency. The rampant corruption is not because of the unavailability of rules but the snail speed of redressal of grievance in courts. With the enactment of Lokpal the Judicial forums will turn into haven of disputes where the judges would brood over innumerable petitions. If the government claims that much audacity to end corruption then it would take immediate action to settle down all cases in courts.

The Guinness record of hearing petitions by Kerala State Chief Minister Ommen Chandy is not a case for Opposition parties to ridicule. He has sent a good message to all who brood on files including judicial forums. Oommen Chandy’s Mass Contact Programme can be taken as a test case to dispose all the pending cases in judicial forums. The petitions in courts are not forever. It should be immediately settled to reduce corruption and for that Lokpal is not at all a necessary.

The Lokpal should not turn as tool for counsels in courts to book a good buck and hope that Lokpal's office itself should not get involved in sloppiness.

K A Solaman