Anna Hazare & Lokpal Bill
Anna Hazare, (Full Name - Kisan Bapat Baburao), born on 15 January 1940, is one of India's well-acclaimed social activists. He is ex-soldier in the Indian army.
Anna is well known and respected for upgrading the ecology and economy of the village of Ralegan Siddhi which is located in the drought prone Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra state. This village has metamorphosed into a unique model of rural development due to its effective water conservation methods, which made the villagers self-sufficient. Earlier, the same village witnessed alcoholism, utter poverty and migration to urban slums. Inspired by Hazare’s unique approach of salvaging a hopeless village, the state government has implemented the `Model Village’ scheme as part of its official strategy.
He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by Government of India, in 1992.
Anna Hazare & Lokpal Bill (Ombudsman Bill)
On April 5 2011, Hazare started a 'fast unto death' to exert pressure on the Government of India to enact a strong anti-corruption act as envisaged in the Jan Lokpal Bill, a law that will establish a Lokpal (ombudsman) that will have the power to deal with corruption in public offices.
As a part of this movement, N. Santosh Hegde, a former justice of the Supreme Court of India and Lokayukta of Karnataka, Prashant Bhushan, a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court along with the members of the “India Against Corruption movement” drafted an alternate bill, named as the Jan Lokpal Bill (People's Ombudsman Bill) with more stringent provisions and wider power to the Lokpal (Ombudsman). Hazare has started a fast unto death from 5 April 2011 at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, to press for the demand to form a joint committee of the representatives of the Government and the civil society to draft a new bill with stronger penal actions and more independence to the Lokpal and Lokayuktas (Ombudsmen in the states), after his demand was rejected by the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh Before commencing his 'fast unto death' he stated, "I will fast until Jan Lokpal Bill is passed".
The movement attracted attention very quickly through various media. It has been reported that thousands of people joined to support Hazare's effort. Many people joined Hazare’s fast. These activities & supporters didn’t allow any politician to sit with him in this movement. A number of social activists including Medha Patkar, Arvind Kejriwal and former IPS officer Kiran Bedi, Jayaprakash Narayan of the Lok Satta have lent their support to Hazare's hunger strike and anti-corruption campaign. In addition to spiritual leaders Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Swami Ramdev,Swami Agnivesh and former Indian cricketer Kapil Dev, many celebrities showed their public support through micro-blogging site Twitter. Indian Premier League (IPL) ex-chairman Lalit Modi also supported support the anti corruption icon Anna Hazare and has urged cricket fans to carry flags and placards to IPL matches to express support to fasting Gandhian Anna Hazare and Jan Lokpal Bill; this was confirmed through micro-blogging site twitter.
The movement gathered quite a significant amount of support from India's youth visible through the local support and on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. There have also been protests in Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad among other cities of India. This movement has also been joined by many people providing their support in Internet social media such as twitter, facebook, linkedin, Orkut, & numerous blogs.
The movement started due to the resentment because of the serious differences between the draft Lokpal Bill 2010 prepared by the government and the Jan Lokpal Bill prepared by the members of this movement, which has received significant public support:
Differences between Draft Lokpal Bill 2010 and Jan Lokpal Bill
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Differences between Draft Lokpal Bill 2010 and Jan Lokpal Bill |
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Draft Lokpal Bill 2010 |
Jan Lokpal Bill |
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Lokpal will have no power to initiate suo moto action or receive complaints of corruption from the general public. It can only probe complaints forwarded by LS Speaker or RS Chairman. |
Lokpal will have powers to initiate suo moto action or receive complaints of corruption from the general public. |
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Lokpal will only be an Advisory Body. Its part is only limited to forwarding its report to the "Competent Authority" |
Lokpal will be much more than an Advisory Body. It should be granted powers to initiate Prosecution against anyone found guilty. |
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Lokpal will not have any police powers. It can not register FIRs or proceed with criminal investigations. |
Lokpal will have police powers. To say that it will be able to register FIRs. |
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CBI and Lokpal will have no connection with each other. |
Lokpal and anti corruption wing of CBI will be one Independent body. |
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Punishment for corruption will be minimum 6 months and maximum up-to 7 years. |
The punishment should be minimum 7 years and maximum up-to life imprisonment. |
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Lokpal will not be a monopoly for particular area. |
What can we do?
We should support such noble act of Anna Hazare from all possible ways. We can write various blogposts, and status & groups at various social networking sites. We can spread awareness among our family, friends and social community, about his noble act. And seek support from more & more people. We can also publish our thoughts to various media. These all ways will pressurize government to step back their rude step and make a transparent & genuine Lokpal Bill….
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