To Anna Hazare my gift of One page Lok Pal Bill

Anna has woken up India. Jan Lok pal Bill is now on the table of the Parliament. While many without examining implications, just do not trust the government any more, and hence blindly believe that the Jan Lok Pal Bill will do wonders for us. Even the authors cannot guarantee the same.

But as some friends of mine say, if thousands of "Lok Payees", the employess/inpsectors of Lok Pal, spread out and start descending on every office, with their vast powers of search and seize practically every government office stops further work. Even routine work gets dislocated.

Our experience of Vigilance shows that it is not always the corrupt gets caught, actually they manage the vigilance too, but truly honest officers became victims of getting in to the case file covers and superior officers lacking courage to say or write on vigilance files allowed the attitude ."let law take its own course" and the time it takes, truly destroyed many an innocent career. I know quite a number of cases.

The CVC with all three members took a deposition from me(2003) on the direction of PM as a result of my long letter on how vigilance was destroying the initiative of the organised services. The CVC agreed with me that a lot of abuse is taking place in the name of vigilance and they did specially mention my own railways.

The result is the safest way to serve is not to serve.

If you want to serve, then better factor in the risk involved, and be extra smart, take care of all the bosses, the wolves to be kept at bay and well, be prepared for the exit in service even without pension but the life after, assured to be comfortable. Of course a rare case. But it did happen to a few.

But quite a few , in fact a large number with tensions managed to work honestly and retire gracefully too. But almost all of them served at mediocre levels as compared to what they can actually deliver considering their intellectual levels. This is what I told the PM. The nation is losing out heavily with the attitude of suspecting the officers with long illustrious careers of decades, suddenly being treated as if they are thieves because they did interpret rules differently than a mere clerk of average intelligence.

If with one Vigilance and a CBI this could happen, imagine the position with Lok Pal in place as they are planning with a huge manpower combining investigation, prosecution and punishment too. All this to happen in fixed time bound manner--how can you achieve some thing like that with batteries of lawyers all round and assuring principles of natural justice too. Just like the Supreme Court it will get just clogged up with cases--some genuine and many fake.

How can you get thousands of people who are totally honest and scrupulous? The power in hand makes a vigilance inspector or the Lok Pal representative at field level vulnerable to the heady feeling of superiority over the fellow beings and unless one cringes before them , he he can simply initiate a case. A corrupt man will take care of him first. Many a honest man will refuse to cringe, and will then face a case file staring at him. Soon honest men will leave the government. In the last decade I personally know at least 4 cases who left railway in disgust at JAG and SAG levels. That is only tip of the ice berg. More cases will happen in all departments in India with Lok Pal.

Then will political guys get caught? The sheer information over load and the case files generated in the system will see to it that LokPals like Supreme Court Judges, will be forced to adjourn cases and it may take a decade before they will be able to decide.

As a friend of mine says, if it is limited to political class alone, then it becomes manageable. It is unimaginable that only political class will allow themselves to be isolated like this. 'Ijjat ka sawal hai". But the political class will fight tooth and nail to see that they are protected. The corrupt actually rule. We have the good ones among them, like Antony. He is a rare spotlessly clean politician.

The definition of honesty is steal money from the public coffers but do not put your own fingers in the till. Pass on to the higher up. Today this is the concept.

But CWG failed to cover their tracks and did the job shabbily not in time. Had they kept up targets and quality, nothing would have been exposed. The spectrum story too was badly handled. Over confidence? Or over zealous CAG? Or the thieves falling out and leaking out some scrap information to media and triggered the domino effect. Else these would have remained unexposed. Ganga would have been flowing quietly.

But corruption is truly eating into the vitals of our nation. The Act itself cannot help. Sheer power to one agency will not solve the problem. It is naive and simplistic , as Nandan Nilekani says.

Then what is the practical solution?

We can see two levels of corruption. One which daily affects us. Taxes, day to day living, registration of property, driving licence, travel tickets, municipal services, power and communication services. The policeman at traffic lights. Let us call this as type A.

Another is industry and business related higher level dealings where public property deals are done. Here higher stakes are involved and oil, land, spectrum, PPP , purchase of technologies, procurement of equipment and similar types of projects approvals and clearances are involved. let us call this as type B.

In the modern era another type of corruption in financial markets and manipulation has arisen: insider trading, regulators over looking Ponzy schemes, money laundering through PN's and off shore investment agencies, launching new and novel innovative derivatives of derivatives trading, creating virtual values out of perceived estimates of increase in values and futures markets--- all well dressed intelligent people playing games, but having serious implications of imploding with serious impact on economy and credit markets. This is a new development, most of the time is not understood by common public but, still we end up paying price by losing wealth in equity valuations. Then you suddenly find Finance Ministry quietly providing for thousands of crores to capitalise the nationalised banks. The NPAs are quietly managed. All this funding is going from our taxes only.Let us call this as type C.

In type A cases. such staff involved in revenue collections like toll gates and licensing authorities like RTOs. and Police stations with jurisdiction on truck movements across borders, do end up making lots of money even at inspector level. But the system are made such that they can make money and then share with superiors. Simple systemic changes can eliminate this problem. In truth compared to the revenue collected by the state from these sources, the leakage could be substantial. This revenue can be made up by direct one time or annual tax collection on line, and dismantle all other physical collection of taxes in cash.

Things like inspection of goods requirement should be exceptional and not routine.

There are some IAS and IPS officers who did make changes in their limited time but they get shifted in no time to human resources or training departments. The political calss and quite a large number of senior rank officers rule the roost.

Electronic collection of taxes, banning cash transactions, eliminating multi-check points did occupy the minds of our officers but will is lacking. The Minister does not want it.

Coming to individual's life, Railways did achieve substantial reduction in corruption in sale of tickets and reservations for travel by computerisation. Yes there are still cases of sophisticated computer based pre-blocking of tickets and trying to make some extra money. Still more than 95% enjoy corruption and hasselfree travel. Shortage of service availability is the root cause. Mostly if this problem is addressed, we are fine.

Communications, earlier suffered from need for bribing the Telecom department. By flooding the market with so many private parites vying for business, our lives have become free from this evil.

Taxes of municipality/electrical bills are now computerised and we are able to pay without harassment in cities like Hyderabad.

Our organised services are doing well in quite a few areas.

But the key is BAN CASH transactions and human discretionary powers. Let on line payments or kiosk payments through computers operated by franchisees take over. That is what Nandan was hinting at. With data links all over the country, it is now possible to eliminate revenue leakage and make lives of normal citizens free from tyranny of of some low level inspector.

Driving license too is simply a matter of streamlining the process through on line tests, followed by adequate number of test and certify agents. Attitudes too make a difference. A pre-conceived notion that without payment nothing happens, makes a willing citizen trying to palm off a note to avoid the boredom and tedious test procedures.

Type A cases , hence can be attended by such systemic changes reducing the work load of the government as well as harassment of the citizen. Extensive computerised systems in position can then eliminate substantial "discretionary" human interface in a large number of services, affecting the day to day life of a citizen.

Coming to Type B cases, where the Corporates greedy for profits and the power dispensers and trustees of the public funds and assets interact we need to take care of two issues: Policy and Execution. Policies are manipulated first to favour some groups and in execution discretionary powers are used to distribute favours in return for compensation. Highest levels of political power and Corporate power come in to play, with substantial influence on the media too and even directing power over the elements of regulatory authorities and CBI and Vigilance. Even selection of Ministers can be influenced by corporate interests. This actually is truly a difficult and complex area where pointing a finger is difficult.

But there is one simple secret. The secret of the combined power of these groups is paradoxically "secrecy". All of them want to appear to be extremely good people and want to appear to be righteous leaders of the society. No one wants to be known as a thief. Honour and image are important. These are people who die if their honour dies. So long as hidden from public scrutiny and no exposure is assured, they blatantly indulge in dog eat dog type vicious play. They will violate any norm or ethic to get what they want. This is the typical psychology of the men for whom success is the ultimate justification for whatever they do. Very ambitious and intelligent people are involved.

Actually Type B and C are in the grip of these persons. In case of Type B political class gets involved more extensively directly, but in type C too, more astute intelligent political class coupled with corporate players play the game.

So the secret power of these people gives us the key too for the solution. If every order of the government is to be issued only with the complete file papers including noting and the process laid and followed, being made available to public on a central document server, we remove this secrecy in working.

We get two pronged protection.

For every sector or group or company which emerges as the beneficiary of the order, there are more than one who did not get the benefit. SO they will act as the scrutinisers for the entire case, and if they find some obvious unfair play or mis-interpretation or wanton wrong interpretation of any policy, they can immediately approach an authority like Lok pal or special court, or regulator, to get the order set aside as bad in law and in spirit. All documents needed for this purpose will be readily available.

Secondly this very fear that the political and bureaucratic class cannot get away issuing a government order to favour some one, by hiding behind secret government files., acts as a serious deterrent to better stick to norms.

Image conscious political class too now gets reined in. They become powerless to be arbitrary and get things done by harassing the bureaucrat.

Now for an authority like Lok pal, the job becomes simpler. There is little investigation needed. All the data in files being available, they can judge whether the order is is fair or not.

It is not people whom we judge first. We judge only the work first. But repeated occurrences will certainly point the needle of suspicion at the people involved. But it is no more a case of bolting the doors after the loot is taken away. Not a post mortem but prevention and benefit is anyway denied.

What could be the objections?

Age old tradition and mind conditioning that we should keep the process of governance a sacred secret. The stupidity or otherwise of the noting by distinguished officers needs to be protected from public scrutiny to preserve the image of the government.

The information of the various companies data must be protected from the rival companies-- as if it is the government's responsibility. Actually once the decision is arrived at it has no meaning.

Another point which very righteously pointed out with stiff upper lip of the British , is that an officer will not be able to write fearlessly his opinion! He may get targeted by vested interests.

If you analyse, the arguments are specious and has no validity.

Let us take one by one. The image of the government is getting badly affected actually by this secrecy. Even genuine and required decisions taken in public interest are believed to be driven by the vested interests today. The trust deficit is dangerously high. Credibility is at the lowest. If at all, this step will restore the transparency in the governance and image of the government will only improve.

To write fearlessly, secrecy is actually a hindrance. The superior uses the secret nature of the file to stifle the honest today. Open visibility actually improves the chances of the honest officer to remain fearless. This openness has another important influence. The fence sitters, will now be forced to fall on the right side of the line. The really bad guys still try to manipulate with intelligent looking arguments, but now they are limited to writing down their opinions but cannot force the issue. If some one still wants to do the wrong thing, he is forced to record his reasons and that is enough record nailing him.This record is now public.

Anyway during the processing of the case, it is necessary to keep the file confidential to avoid interference by outsiders, but once decision is taken and orders are issued, the file need not be secret.

To control intelligent but crooked, there is nothing but open working, with fear of public exposure in real time, which alone is actually effective. Soon they too will be forced to fall in line because, the order will get nullified within 24 hours of issue of such bad orders.

Lok Pal then becomes lean but very mean for the bad operators. Even bad Lok Pal has a problem. The mass of citizens who now have access to information, certainly judge the working of the Lok pal and the case can immediately move to Supreme Court , through an appeal of the affected party or activist in public interest.

We save the needless time required to ferret out information from the government as it is happening today.

The types of B & C can then be effectively check mated.

More important is the over all effect on the country that we mean business and attitude itself will undergo a sea change.

The current thinking of creating Lok Pal as an additional huge parallel government , wishing it to be much purer than the existing government, following the same path of creating secret files, with a hordes of so called honest guys going after so called dishonest guys , is truly a scene from a horror movie.

The country will be brought to a halt unwittingly and life of the citizens will become miserable. More miserable than what it is.

Please understand, we are one nation and it is unfair to to treat an entire group of servants of the public to be useless and dishonest. That includes the politicians. Circumstances we allowed to be created, produced opportunities which some abused. It does not mean we condemn wholesale the entire system We have done well in spite of some bad guys.

I believe if we understand the core problem, then solution is not complex. But if we do not, and still follow old colonial thinking that we need some watchful inspector for every worker and every worker is assumed to be suspect, then suspect the inspector also who is supposed to watch, we end up in a black hole.

Come to think of it, this golden moment created by innocent Anna can become the harbinger of doom for the country , all with good intentions. But this moment can be used to make a little structural changes, and our country can glow.

In summary we do need Lok Pal..how this Lok pal should function is the matter.

Let me draft an outline of the Lok pal Act which I would implement if I have the power.

Quote:

Draft Lok pall Bill Aug 2011.

Not with standing any thing contained in any other Act the following provisions of the Lok pal Act shall apply>

Each and every non-secret government order issued shall be necessarily released as authenticated electronic version along with all the policy background information, the file through which this excutive action is take under the policy, the complete set of documets relied upon. the noting of various levels of government officers/or PSU officers, or officers of the regulatory authority; all this shall be released in public domain on secure central government servers with mirror copies at the servers with the Lok Pals. These documents shall have complete legal validity without further authentication.

A special bench of Supreme Court of three judges at center and three Judges of each High Court shall be constituted by each Chief Justice with a minimum tenure of 2 years for the members, who are sitting judges of the court. These benches are the Lok Pal's for Center and states.

An additional registrar with special facilitation of electronic office with dedicated server with access to central data server which stores government orders and the concerned image files leading to the orders, complete by itself will be available for use of each of the Lok Pal.

Lok Pal will have a panel of experts to advise in each sector if needed.

The Lok Pal is free to initiate a case, suo moto or on appeal by an aggrieved party, or a CAG reference, or a media report with reference to the public data base of the file systems, based on information available on the servers with them, give one chance for the government to add any clarifications to the files already in servers, which also will be public, and then pronounce their judgement which can only be appealed to the central Lok Pal of the Supreme Court. this decision will be final for setting aside the order. But the punishment or other wise of the guilty will not arise at this stage. That is because most probably no damage would have occurred and after all it could be a matter interpretation.

Unless a repetitive or gross wanton misjudgment is detected, prima facie, the Lok Pal will not initiate steps for punishing the Minister or the officer involved.

When such occasion arises, then orders to take the person off the responsibility, and orders to initiate criminal proceedings will be given to the government which follows the normal course that law currently takes. Even here the documentary evidence and the Lok Pal's directive will be weighing factors unfavourably for the person so charged and the Sessions Court Judge will pass the orders for the fit punishment."

Unquote

Practically when Lok pal removes one from the responsibility, which is binding and non-negotiable for the government, the person has died, losing the honour.

In this system, it is very unlikely that any public money is looted by the concerned person because, the action here is preventive and catches the culprit even before any further damage is done.

The major cases of type B and type C only are dealt here under Lok Pal.

The type A is tackled by system over haul and avoiding huma interface at all cash transaction points of the government.

But once you tackle type B and C, you will find a sea change in attitudes leading to a society where one does not expect bribe as a routine matter.

My Lokpal Act hence is no more than one page. It is very much constitutional and is well wthin implementation within 2 months.

Here question does not arise who is under the Lok pal or not. Every government servant irrespective of rank from PM to a Joint Secretary and every competent authority issuing such order will get covered. Mind you the order is covered. regarding what to do with the person arises later.If it happens to be say, Prime Minster, the loss of prestige is sufficient for any reasonable man to resign. Or go back to the parliament and get the law or policy modified and issue revised order will be another option. But discipline of following own policy guidelines will be imposed.

To assess how effective this one page Act will be, just imagine what would have happened in Adarsh. 2G or CWG cases, had such Act been in position.

They would never have happened. Period.

I am deeply worried that what Anna created, we will lose getting lost in writing huge Acts like Jan Lok Pal Act --on the same line as British made for colonial slaves. The difference is in administration British executed the ACt for slaves. But for a Republic such kind of an Act does not work. We have to administer our selves now. Some of us should not place ourseves as the masters and the rest slaves. We are working like that.

Time we wake up from our deep slumber and love our nation and ourselves. Anna has created an opportunity. Let us change our lives now.

Else we will only become more miserable and do things leading us in to an anarchy.