Firstly, I must admit that, though the idea of 'India Against Corruption ' did appeal to me, I was never comfortable with the idea of fasting unto death to challenge a pillar of democracy . The idea that 'people's power is supreme' can be absurd at times. Today, it is the parliament under fire, tomorrow a judicial court may be expected to act in consonance with the popular sentiments while trying a particular accused.
I still feel that, a very bad precedent has been set. In a country of over one billion people any popular leader can mobilize 20-25 lakhs of people in his/her support to threaten the very existence of an institution provided for under the constitution.
Now, let us see how it all panned out. I am not calling it Anna Hazare Movement to begin with as he actively joined the movement somewhere in mid course, rather than initiate the movement. I have to mention that I don't mean to discredit Anna Hazare , since we have reached a stage where unless one is eulogising the great 'gandhian' you are accused of being a traitor and a congress stooge.
It all started with Shri Santosh Hegde , Lokayukta of karnataka, sometime in mid 2010. In my humble opinion, Justice Santosh Hegde, though not so flamboyant, was to Lokayukta was TN Seshan was to Election Commission. A post which had been in existence since 1985, was suddenly in News Headlines. He made a pedestrian appointment look like a high profile one. He was one of the founders of the Indian against Corruption Group. There is a recording of minutes of a meeting of India Against Corruption (IAC ) available here
The following met at IIC on 10th August 2010 to discuss the deficiencies in present anti-corruption systems in our country and what steps need to be taken to address these deficiencies.
1. Justice Santosh Hegde, Karnataka Lokayukta
2. Mr J M Lyngdoh, former Chief Election Commissioner
3. Mr P Shankar, former Central Vigilance Commissioner
4. Prashant Bhushan, Advocate, Supreme Court
5. Mr Kamal Jaswal, Director Common Cause
6. Mr Shekhar Singh, Eminent social activist
7. Mr Nikhil Dey, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangthan
8. Mr Arvind Kejriwal, Social activist
9. Mr Sarvesh Sharma, Common Cause
10. Mr Suhas Borkar, social activist and media personality
The basic Ingredients of the present Jan Lokpal Bill my be found in these minutes
This is the time Arvind Kejriwal , as an RTI activist was actively lobbying for appointment of Kiran Bedi for the post of Chief Information Commissioner ( CIC), along with baba ramdev, Anna Hazare and Amir Khan.
