An open Letter to Mr. Anna Hazare

Dear Mr. Anna Hazare.

First of all let me congratulate you for what you have done to my country in the past weeks. It would be too little if I say that it is a job too well done… You have become an engine of what a common man always wants to do , see and have in his country.. But unfortunately Mr. Hazare the track on which your engine is plying, is laid down by the government whom you are trying to take head on….

Let me hit the point straightway….

Your crusade is unfortunately misdirected…

You are trying to cure only the infected part of the system by trying to bring about a panacea named the Lokpal…

Your object is to appoint a super specialist doctor to cure the disease of corruption BUT unfortunately doing nothing to ensure that the body itself remains healthy at the first place and no corrupt are bred in the system… you will keep netting the corrupt with the Lokpal while numerous more will keep breeding under your nose…. So all that good u do will be nullified almost constantly… A zero sum game it will become…

You may bargain an all powerful Lokpal with even the PM under his ambit

“BUT”…

As long as the Lokpal himself is appointed by the Govt. Mr. Hazare, your whole exercise is futile…

That Lokpal will again be at the disposal of the whims and fancies of the sarkar… as we see in the case of CBI, ED which otherwise has enough constitutional mandate to take the biggies to task…

As long as all constitutional, statutory & executive appointments are at the Govt’s discretion, the govt. will play the game, make all the rules, be the referee and win hands down…

SO

The constitutional provision where the top appointments as recommended by a collegium of judges in case of higher judiciary, PESB in case of PSU’s, and a committee of ministers, a SC judge and the leader of opposition in case of top appointments in the bureaucracy, is non binding on the Govt. , is the root cause of all the evil i,e.. “The discretion of the Govt .”

All of us remember the case of CVC appointment… the committee had recommended someone else, the govt wanted Thomas, leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj expressed her reservation about appointing Thomas as CVC in her capacity as a member of the appointment committee, still the Govt. made him the CVC…

SO

Mr. Hazare more importantly if you are able to bargain with the Sarkar… to make it binding upon the Govt. to accept the recommendations of the Appointment Committee, I am sure we have no dearth of capable , honest and upright officers in our cadres to take the charge and lead the way to a brighter and a corruption free future… in that case not only Lokpal but majority of the officers of India will be selected on merit and not for toeing the Govt’s line and getting rewarded in return and this in turn will ensure us somewhat better future… though much still remains to be done subsequently in other fields for a progressive march towards a healthy society…