Indian government approves anti corruption law draft, but civil society not pleased

Activist Anna Hazare describes the bill as a 'deceit on the nation' 

India's government has approved a draft of the new anti-corruption law, which will be tabled in Parliament during the upcoming session, which starts on 1st August.

The proposed legislation would see the creation of an anti corruption ombudsman, or Lokpal, with the power to probe corruption in the upper tiers of India's bureaucracy, in Parliament and in the ministries.

But many Indian anti corruption civil society activists have rejected the Lokpal Bill 2011 as insufficient as it exempts the prime minister and the judiciary.

Indian activist Anna Hazare called the bill a 'cruel joke' and said he would go on a hunger strike from 16th August in protest.

Another prominent anti corruption campaigner and former senior police officer, Kiran Bedi, said on Thursday 28th July that the government "is taking people for a ride".

The government of India's Prime Minister Monmohan Singh has been hit by a series of corruption scandals in recent months and years, which has seen Singh's previously clean image become increasingly tarnished.

The Lokpal Bill was meant to show that the government is serious about corruption, but while it included anti corruption campaigners in the bill's development, the two sides fell out over the issue of whether the prime minister should be included under the bill.

India's BJP opposition party has also criticised the bill.

"If a prime minister does something corrupt to save his seat and there is no investigation into the corruption, then what does this mean?” BJP spokesman Ravishankar Prasad was quoted by the BBC as saying.

According to Salman Khurshid, one of the government ministers in the bill drafting committee, Prime Minister Singh had wanted the prime minister's role to be brought under the Lokpal's purview, but the Cabinet decided against it.

Khurshid also said the government would introduce separate legislation to increase judicial accountability.

The bill will still have to get Parliament's approval before it becomes law. While it seems likely that it will pass – no party will want to look like it is condoning corruption - it is not a guarantee. Different forms of the Lokpal Bill have made multiple rounds through Parliament since 1968 without being enacted, according to the Wall Street Journal.

If passed, the body would be made up of 8 members, plus a chairperson. It would comprise four retired or serving judges and justices of higher courts and four individuals with at least 25 years of experience in the field of anti corruption. The chairperson would be a serving or retired Supreme Court judge.

The Lokpal members would serve five-year terms, and would be appointed by the President, based on recommendations from a team made up of the prime minister, the speaker of Parliament, the leader of the opposition and others.

Sources: BBC News, Times of India, Wall Street Journal

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