Why protest against the Jan Lokpal Bill?

The government’s draft of the Lokpal Bill roused many NGOs, caused Anna Hazare to go on hunger strike, and resulted in the government forming a drafting committee with half the members from outside the government. Objections to that draft were summarized in an article in ET:

The long-awaited Lokpal Bill is finally in the works. But unfortunately the Bill as it stands today is riddled with loopholes … defeating the very purpose for which it has been drafted: to tackle the scourge of corruption. The Lokpal cannot, under the proposed Bill, investigate any case against the Prime Minister in the arena of external affairs and defence.

This means corruption in defence deals, a la Bofors for instance, will be completely outside its jurisdiction. It will have jurisdiction only over members of Parliament and ministers, besides truncated jurisdiction over the Prime Minister. Bureaucrats will continue to be dealt with under the existing mechanism. The Lokpal will not have powers to inquire into complaints, suo motu. Complaints against MPs can only be made to the Speaker, who will then decide whether to forward them to the Lokpal for investigation.

Since the Speaker is invariably from the ruling party, it requires no great intelligence to realise where such an arrangement will lead: in the Indian scenario, a surfeit of investigations against Opposition MPs and none against members of the party in power. That is not all. After completing its inquiry, the Lokpal will have no power to take action. The best it can do is forward the report to the Speaker and the Prime Minister for such action as the latter may deem fit.

Now the alternative draft of the bill presented by the protesters seems to be raising misgivings amongst many. Here is a news report from DNA:

Arguing that the very concept behind the proposed Jan Lokpal Bill goes against the constitution, a city based group has organised a protest rally on April 14, the birth Anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

“The bill is against democracy and gives all rights of investigation, prosecution and punishment to the Lokpal. We are opposing the concept as it is against the Constitution of India,” Raju Kuthavad, member of ‘Sanvidhan Bachao Manch’ said.

A rally by the group would start from August Kranti Maidan in the morning and will end at Chaitya Bhumi at Dadar.

“The Lokpal would be the ultimate authority if the bill is passed. He would be above Parliament and the Judiciary which challenges the basics of democracy,” he said.

Among other problems with the draft Jan Lokpal Bill is the following:

6.5 A selection committee consisting of the following shall be set up:

1. The Chairpersons of both Houses of Parliament
2. Two senior most judges of Supreme Court
3. Two senior most Chief Justices of High Courts.
4. All Nobel Laureates of Indian Origin
5. Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission
6. Last two Magsaysay Award winners of Indian origin
7. Comptroller and Auditor General of India
8. Chief Election Commissioner
9. Bharat Ratna Award winners
10. After the first set of selection process, the outgoing members and Chairperson of Lokpal.

The only elected members are the speakers of the houses. All other members are nominated by the government, apart from the Nobel laureates of Indian origin and Magsaysay award winners. These last two categories may include people who are not even citizens of India!

The rest of the draft contains more daft ideas like this.