Anna's fast offers a lesson in civic rights and responsibilities

Giant television screens have been installed at the MMRDA Grounds in Mumbai where Anna Hazare begins his three-day fast at 11 am today to press once more for a strong Lokpal Bill to combat political corruption. On those screens will be beamed live images from Parliament, which today begins a three-day debate on the Lokpal Bill that was tabled late last week. The tens of thousands of people who are expected to come to express solidarity with Team Anna’s campaign – or even just be informed of the contours of the debate –will together watch how their representatives in Parliament conduct themselves, and where they stand on the issue of a strong Lokpal Bill. Similar gatherings will be organised in cities and towns across India, at the initiative of India Against Corruption, the umbrella organisation that is spearheading the movement for a Jan Lokpal. The campaign received a symbolic expression of solidarity from a megastar: in Chennai, actor Rajnikanth offered the IAC activists free use of his marriage hall for them to stage their protest fast. Although Rajnikanth emphasised that he did not favour one version of the Bill over another, his offer is being seen as a symbolic show of support. [caption id=“attachment_165822” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“As much as it is about fighting corruption, Anna’s campaign is a call to citizen’s awakening. AFP”] [/caption] The Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill, 2011 - as it is called - is listed for discussion for eight hours in Parliament along with a bill that seeks to amend the Constitution to give the proposed Lokpal agency constitutional status. In addition, Parliament will also take up and debate the Whistleblowers Bill, which seeks to protect whistleblowers against corruption and punish anyone who discloses the identity of whistleblowers. From all accounts, the Lokpal Bill as introduced by the government will not pass in its present form. Opposition parties across the spectrum – from the BJP to the Left parties – have various levels of inhibition with provisions in the Bill, and have indicated that they will move amendments to it. The Bill, as Firstpost has noted , has many failings: Team Anna has said that it will at the very least want four important provisions to be addressed. The UPA government, on the other hand, wants the Bill, which Sonia Gandhi had commended as “fabulous”, to be passed as it is. The Congress has issued a three-line whip to its members to be present in the House on Tuesday. This was, according to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, not a sign of nervousness, but merely intended to ensure that the Bill is passed. He requested opposition parties not to move amendments to the Bill, but that request seems unlikely to be heeded. The BJP, for instance, opposes the provision for reservations for minorities on the Lokpal panel, which it says is unconstitutional. Yet, on this point, it seems to be outnumbered, since most other parties have embraced the proposal. The BJP also proposes to move amendments that dilute the provision for creation of Lokayuktas at the State level under Article 253 of the Constitution on the ground that by making it mandatory, it impinges on the federal structure of the Constitution. Without prejudice to the rights of states, the BJP’s reluctance to embrace the institution of the Lokayukta at the state level betrays an inadequate commitment to the larger cause of a strong anti-corruption agency at the central and the state levels. After all, if a strong Lokpal is felt necessary at the central level, why is a strong Lokayukta agency at the state level bad for states? How the party reconciles this inconsistency will be watched with interest. The Left parties have also given notice of the amendments that they will likely move. Some of them are substantive, and go to the core of Team Anna’s demands. For instance, the CPI(M) says it will move an amendment that would provide investigative powers to the proposed Lokpal, an issue on which the government remains unyielding. CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told mediapersons that his party was not “very happy” with the Bill since it doesn’t go far enough to ensure that the Lokpal institution will be effective. His party, he added, would move “concrete amendments” to strengthen the Lokpal. Forget, for a minute, the minutiae of the Bill and the clauses and subclauses that will (hopefully) be debated in microdetail. There will be plenty of time to analyse those. Focus, instead, on the image of ordinary folks getting together in cities and towns across India to get together to watch – and watch over – Parliament, and to clinically dissemble and parse each MP’s speech to know where they stand. That goes to the core of what our democracy is about. By getting people together to focus on the big picture, and to try and hold parliamentarians accountable for their utterances and their actions, Team Anna is imparting an important lesson in civics -  on people’s relationship with the government and how they perceive their place in society -  to large masses of people who otherwise don’t occupy their minds with reflections on governance. And by appealing to activists never to resort to violence, and even, at a more basic level, to clean up the venue of the fast (as was done following the Ramlila fast in August), the Anna-led campaign is elevating people to own up to their civic responsibilities. When was the last time you saw a mass movement conduct itself so responsibly?