Where does the buck stop?

In last few weeks, several important developments have taken place, some of which will have long term impact on Indian democracy. One is Anna Hazares Civil Society meeting a deadlock over Lokpal Bill with Kapil Sibal and his team rising as was expected the prospects of failure. (Read my blog Hidden Agenda to Derail Anti Corruption Drive.) The government team has given very clear intention of staying away from the main issues of corruption and bringing about a toothless bill and an institution which they can flog about to take credit for passing a Lokpal Bill which has been on the back burner for several decades. While the discussions are still underway by bringing in loop all the political parties, one thing is clear that no politician wants to be held accountable. It is sad that the government team is hiding behind the faade of democratic norms and supremacy of parliament while presiding over the most corrupt administration ever. The mind boggling scandals are still erupting everyday. The cabinet ministers and secretaries themselves are engineering the frauds on the nation right under the nose of the prime minister. Dayanidhi Maran, Union Textile Minister and former Telecom Minister had to quit as CBI reported to the Supreme Court on his involvement in 2G Scam during UPA I. We also read about Murli Deora, Union Minister for Corporate Affairs, offering to resign without stating explicit reasons but in anticipation of storm ahead for his role as Petroleum Minister. V.K.Sibal, Director General of Hydrocarbons, has been under scanner for favoring a private sector company and things will soon fall in place. With 2 G scam stretching back to UPA I and Dayanidhi Maran, there is clamor for resignation of P. Chidambaram, then Finance Minister. Chidambaram did say as home minister The buck stops here, but we do not know if the same can be applied for Chidambaram the finance minister. The buck never stops at Prime Minister and certainly not at Congress President Sonia Gandhi. So where does it go? Where is the accountability of the elected representatives sent by common man to rule the nation and uphold the supremacy of the parliament? When the fence starts eating the grass the fence has to be changed. That is what Civil Society and common man is just seeking.

Another important issue is the constitution of a SIT by the Supreme Court to investigate the issue of black money stashed abroad reflecting directly on lack of interest shown by the UPA II government in tackling the same. The Supreme Court is unhappy about non-disclosure of names of account holders in Swiss bank hiding behind the bilateral treaty. No doubt one can expect the government to challenge the jurisdiction the Supreme Court, but public interest and RTI have to be upheld. The government seems to have no intention to go overboard to tackle issue of black money stashed overseas. At best the strategy of toothless laws could be all they may have to offer under pressure. There is a need to bring in higher judiciary also under some umbrella for accountability. This is accentuated by the scanner on former CJI K.G. Balakrishnan. One must give due credit to the CAG, Vinod Rai, for his upright stances on all the exposures for the scams without fear or favor. The government tried to rubbish his claims and even PM objected to his press conference. He has withstood all the pressures and shown to the world that a constitutional authority can be independent and do justice to the task assigned. He is not elected representative of the people to be supreme. And yet he is the protector of their interests. With so many scams at highest levels exposed he has set new benchmarks in performance. There are many such upright officers of high integrity in the government and therefore there is no reason why we can not have effective Lok Pal or Lok Ayuktas. Under these circumstances, the government must try to reconcile and make the bill stringent so that higher as well as even lower levels of politicians and bureaucrats feel the need for accountability. The corruption is all pervasive and it is no prerogative of any specific levels. While the prime minister may have the privileges on issues like national security and select fields, there is a need to correct the system of ownership of responsibility for a cabinet ministers actions or lack of it. Nation can not suffer because of lack of supervision at highest levels in the name of delegation of authority. It is just a mockery and denial of the facts visible to the whole world. If Anna Hazare sits on fast on August 16, 2011again, it will be a sad day as our parliament (elected representatives) would have failed to read the writing on the wall and would be driving the nation and particularly younger generation

to wake up the politicians before the next general elections. Is it just possible that no corrupt sitting MP/ MLA would be returned to the house!!! The awareness has spread through social networking like wild fire and politicians can feel the heat later if not sooner. And the padyatras undertaken by politicians in next 2 years will ensure awareness amongst not so net savvy vote banks that can swing the mood of the electorate. Indian electorate has never adopted violent means to demonstrate. They have always chosen to surprise the political heavyweights by decimating them. I can see a hung parliament or third front emerging at national level. UPA may lose because of its short sighted policies and BJP may not gain for the same reason. I can see that buck sneaking out of the corridors of powers and stopping at, you guessed it right, the people who elect the representatives to parliament / assemblies. May good sense prevail! Vijay M. Deshpande Corporate Advisor, Strategic Management Initiative, Pune 411021 July 8, 2011 Visit my blogs on www. strami.com