Jan Lokpal versus Democracy

BY ANKIT GOYLA

Jan Lokpal Bill promises an independent democratic system, like the Election Commission of India, to ensure corruption free government and to ensure that people’s voice reaches the top authorities as soon as possible and gets some justice. ‘Lokpal’ means ‘ombudsman’ in English and so the bill that suggests the creation of a central system for the representation of the public through such a representative or Lokpal is called as the ‘Jan Lokpal Bill’. 

I think that the institution created because of the passing of this bill would have immense power to prosecute bureaucrats and those in power, even if it is the Prime Minister, in case any of them goes on the wrong path. It would definitely control the amount of corruption in the system and also lessen the number of scams budding in the system. It is a very successful arrangement in a lot of Scandinavian countries and this system needs to be created in India to make India a more efficient democracy. The bill also promises a similar system at the state level which will ensure eradicating corruption from its roots.

Activism has always helped the leaders in a democracy to check and correct themselves. Activism also works as a catalyst in sanctioning any pending decision that is for the good of the government. The Jan Lokpal bill has been sitting in the Rajya Sabha for the past forty two years. But after Anna Hazare’s activism along with his supporters all over the country struggling for the bill to be passed, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently has promised that the bill would be introduced in 2011 in the monsoon session of the parliament. And so, we can see that activism is playing the role of an effective catalyst in this case.

So, I would like to conclude by saying that activism and democratically elected institutions can never be on a collision course because activism is an essential element that ensures that democracy is working according to the true democratic principles. Activism also checks that the democratically elected institutions work efficiently even after the people running the institution are elected in a democratic manner. Therefore just electing the people in power through a democratic process in not enough, certain amount of activism is also essential in ensuring that decisions made by these institutions are not wrong and are in the common interest of the public.