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mysistereileen.com/?p=502Jun 25, 2011 – 4 hours ago – @mysistereileen.com #TOI #RTI #Lokpal Bill … I never trusted Anna et al. A vicious, atrocious, malicious, megalomaniacs. ...The Devil and a Dingbat: Sid Harth « My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth
mysistereileen.com/?p=423Jun 27, 2011 – Jun 13, 2011 – Can Anna Hazare's Jan Lokpal Bill deter corruption? ... Jul 1, 2011 – You chased Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev et al. ... Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha ... Cogito Ergo Sum: The Rise and Fall of Kisan Cabal Cancer
gosumercogito.blogspot.com/.../rise-and-fall-of-kisan-cabal-cancer_0...Nov 5, 2011 – @mysistereileen.com #TOI #RTI #Lokpal Bill - cogito ergo sum ... the West African nation where Libya's fugitive Saif al-Islam Gaddafi may be ..... Oct 21, 2011 – ... screaming and blaming UPA-II administration. better look your ...
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bakulaji.typepad.com/are_we_there_yet_oops.../democrazy.htmlSep 3, 2011 – 6 days ago – Jul 2, 2011 – @mysistereileen.com #DraftLokpalBill #Anna Hazare ... Jul 29, 2011 – The Week Ahead: Lokpal Bill Draft, Health Insurance . ... have proposed a draft Lok Pal Bill to tackle the menace of corruption. ...Week Ahead: Lokpal Bill Countdown, U.S. India Business Meet ...
blogs.wsj.com/.../week-ahead-lokpal-bill-countdown-u-s-india-busin...Jun 20, 2011 – 10:34 pm June 28, 2011; My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth » The Devil and a Dingbat: Sid Harth wrote: [...] Week Ahead: Lokpal Bill Countdown, U.S. ...Hindu Hell: Sid Harth « USA: News, Views and Reviews
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cogitoergosumworld.com/?m=20110809Aug 9, 2011 – Jul 2, 2011 – @mysistereileen.com #DraftLokpalBill #Anna Hazare … ... Jun 30, 2011 – the-week-ahead-lokpal-bill-draft-health-insurance-… .... since the government-approved Lokpal bill has been tabled in the Lok Sabha. ...@mysistereileen,Oops, SarahRah-RahPalin, Oops, BroEthanol, LoL ...
www.sidileak.us/.../mysistereileenoops-sarahrah-rahpalin-oops-broeth...Home Sample Page ← @mysistereileen.com @reuters.com @wsj.com #PressDigest ... People need to look into ways to make their own money for themselves and family .... The Senate voted on the bill, the Senate is controlled by DEMOCRATS – the bill was ...... Music Monday: Weird Al Goes Gaga With ' Perform This Way' ... admin « Holy Hindu Cow! What Now?: Sid Harth
www.holyhinducowwhatnow.com/:/2011/06/:/www.../2011/?...Starred results for @mysistereileen.com Hindu terrorism ..... Front (MILF) and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) both of which are closely linked to al-Qaeda. ...... Many doubts are being raised about the honesty of members of Lok Pal. ...... Where as Anna at least had some proposal and demand for a Lokpal Bill to fight ...
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Strong Lokpal, weak judiciary recipe for failure: Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar
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Anna Hazare has threatened a fast and "fill jails" movement to persuade Parliament to place the Central Bureau of Investigation under the new anti-corruption Lokpal. He says a Lokpal without an investigative wing is toothless. The government replies that the anti-corruption branch of the CBI can be supervised by the Lokpal in cases referred to that body, but that's all.
This debate misses the main reason why the Lokpal is likely to flop. Even if the Lokpal controls the CBI, it will have no control over the courts. These seem incapable of convicting any resourceful person beyond appeals within his or her lifetime. Little will be achieved if the Lokpal initiates a thousand cases that then drag on for decades, with the accused out on bail.
Example: the murder case of LN Mishra, former chief minister of Bihar and right-hand man of Indira Gandhi, is dragging on 37 years after his killing in 1975. The 27-year-old man accused of murder is now an ailing 64. Of the 39 witnesses he cited to prove his innocence, 31 have died, gravely prejudicing the case against him. No less than 22 different judges have handled the trial over the years. The case is being tried on a day-by-day basis, the fastest possible. If this happens in a VIP's case, what hope of justice do lesser mortals have?
The corruption case against Sukh Ram, former telecom minister, has gone on for 16 years. The High Court has just pronounced him guilty, but he can appeal to the Supreme Court. He is now 85 years old and ailing, and may not live to hear the Supreme Court's verdict.
These are just two of a myriad of examples. The problem is not limited to criminal cases-civil cases are even more problematic. The IFC and World Bank produce an annual Doing Business report on how difficult it is to do business in different countries. In the category "enforcement of contract" , India ranks 182out of 183 countries! It is the second worst in the world. India is sometimes called a miracle economy , but the real miracle is how a country with such a pathetic judicial system grows fast at all.
The problem is compounded by a police force that is not only highly corrupt and willing to do the dirty work of political masters but is also lacking in forensic and investigative skills. It depends mainly on third degree measures to solve cases. An outrageous 1,500 persons died in police custody last year, and only the naive will believe that these were mostly natural deaths.
Research by three academics (Kumar, Krishnaswamy and Narayana) at Azim Premji University, on 16 years' performance of the Lokayukta in Karnataka, claims that lack of Lokayukta control over the police is not a binding constraint. In these 16 years, Karnataka's Lokayukta carried out only 357 suo motu raids but responded to over 2,159 complaints against 2,681 officials. So, the legal power to initiate action was not the key determinant of the Lokayukta's anti-corruption crusade. The lion's share of Karnataka cases was against lower officials. This suggests that the Lokpal might be overwhelmed with petty cases if given jurisdiction over the lower bureaucracy.
Further, 95% of the investigated cases in Karnataka received sanction for prosecution. The researchers cite this as evidence that there is little political resistance to anti-corruption crusading. However, only 10% of the cases were against senior officials, and only 0.8% against elite corps like the IAS, IPS, IFS and KAS. So the evidence suggests nothing more than that anti-corruption action is feasible against petty officials. It does not diminish Anna Hazare's case for strong powers to overcome political resistance to tackling Big Corruption.
The huge problem uncovered by the researchers is that the cases under trial are, on an average, more than five years old. Only 16 cases overall have resulted in convictions, a conviction rate of 20% of completed cases and a small fraction of pending cases. This is much lower than the rate of convictions in criminal prosecutions in anti-corruption cases in India in recent years, which is between 34 and 40%. Despite having an activist Lokayukta, corruption has not been stemmed in Karnataka. To put it bluntly , India is a land without justice.
So, Hazare's belief that a powerful Lokpal with investigative powers will stem corruption is dead wrong. Unless we have root-and-branch judicial reform to speed up processes and verdicts, the new Lokpal will simply increase the already formidable backlog of incomplete cases in the courts. Unless there is justice for all cases, we will not get justice in corruption cases.
This debate misses the main reason why the Lokpal is likely to flop. Even if the Lokpal controls the CBI, it will have no control over the courts. These seem incapable of convicting any resourceful person beyond appeals within his or her lifetime. Little will be achieved if the Lokpal initiates a thousand cases that then drag on for decades, with the accused out on bail.
Example: the murder case of LN Mishra, former chief minister of Bihar and right-hand man of Indira Gandhi, is dragging on 37 years after his killing in 1975. The 27-year-old man accused of murder is now an ailing 64. Of the 39 witnesses he cited to prove his innocence, 31 have died, gravely prejudicing the case against him. No less than 22 different judges have handled the trial over the years. The case is being tried on a day-by-day basis, the fastest possible. If this happens in a VIP's case, what hope of justice do lesser mortals have?
The corruption case against Sukh Ram, former telecom minister, has gone on for 16 years. The High Court has just pronounced him guilty, but he can appeal to the Supreme Court. He is now 85 years old and ailing, and may not live to hear the Supreme Court's verdict.
These are just two of a myriad of examples. The problem is not limited to criminal cases-civil cases are even more problematic. The IFC and World Bank produce an annual Doing Business report on how difficult it is to do business in different countries. In the category "enforcement of contract" , India ranks 182out of 183 countries! It is the second worst in the world. India is sometimes called a miracle economy , but the real miracle is how a country with such a pathetic judicial system grows fast at all.
The problem is compounded by a police force that is not only highly corrupt and willing to do the dirty work of political masters but is also lacking in forensic and investigative skills. It depends mainly on third degree measures to solve cases. An outrageous 1,500 persons died in police custody last year, and only the naive will believe that these were mostly natural deaths.
Research by three academics (Kumar, Krishnaswamy and Narayana) at Azim Premji University, on 16 years' performance of the Lokayukta in Karnataka, claims that lack of Lokayukta control over the police is not a binding constraint. In these 16 years, Karnataka's Lokayukta carried out only 357 suo motu raids but responded to over 2,159 complaints against 2,681 officials. So, the legal power to initiate action was not the key determinant of the Lokayukta's anti-corruption crusade. The lion's share of Karnataka cases was against lower officials. This suggests that the Lokpal might be overwhelmed with petty cases if given jurisdiction over the lower bureaucracy.
Further, 95% of the investigated cases in Karnataka received sanction for prosecution. The researchers cite this as evidence that there is little political resistance to anti-corruption crusading. However, only 10% of the cases were against senior officials, and only 0.8% against elite corps like the IAS, IPS, IFS and KAS. So the evidence suggests nothing more than that anti-corruption action is feasible against petty officials. It does not diminish Anna Hazare's case for strong powers to overcome political resistance to tackling Big Corruption.
The huge problem uncovered by the researchers is that the cases under trial are, on an average, more than five years old. Only 16 cases overall have resulted in convictions, a conviction rate of 20% of completed cases and a small fraction of pending cases. This is much lower than the rate of convictions in criminal prosecutions in anti-corruption cases in India in recent years, which is between 34 and 40%. Despite having an activist Lokayukta, corruption has not been stemmed in Karnataka. To put it bluntly , India is a land without justice.
So, Hazare's belief that a powerful Lokpal with investigative powers will stem corruption is dead wrong. Unless we have root-and-branch judicial reform to speed up processes and verdicts, the new Lokpal will simply increase the already formidable backlog of incomplete cases in the courts. Unless there is justice for all cases, we will not get justice in corruption cases.
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என் கண்ணே சுவாமிநாதன் (யீ) எஸ் Ankalesaria A + Ayyayo!, ஹசாரே-ஆயிரம் விட சிறந்த பத்து மடங்கு. Aiya, யார், அச்சச்சோ, தோஸ்த், அச்சச்சோ, புனித ஆவி, அய்யர்.
...and I am Sid Smarth, Brahmin, Oops, Harth
My dear Swaminathan (Ye) S Ankalesaria A+ Ayyayo!, Ten times smarter than Hazare-Thousand. Aiya, Yar, Oops, Dost, Oops, holy ghost, Aiyar.
...and I am Sid Smarth, Brahmin, Oops, Harth
Strong Lokpal, weak judiciary recipe for failure: Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar
- Story
- Comments (17)
Aiyar is correct. The Lokpal Bill is not going to remove corruption. The Bill seeks to punish corruption AFTER the event. We should try to reduce the opportunities for corruption in addition to punishing the guilty after it is committed.This can be done only by reducing and decentralising the number of discretionary control decisions in the hands of the politicians and bureaucrats. Let me illustrate. The passport office and RTO are two of the major corruption centers in any city encountered by an average citizen. In the USA, post offices issue U.S. passports within 5 days for new borns. A parent can go to any post office with his/her ID and the baby . The PO takes the photos and the baby's passport is sent by post within a week.Why can't we, for example, decentralise and empower banks, post offices and police stations to renew/ issue driving licenses, vehicle registration etc., for residents in a city? This single decision alone will reduce a major fraction of corruption at the RTO. Since the citizen has a multiple choice of places where he can get the job done and since corruption is less in banks and POs than in the RTOs, the opportunities for extracting bribes for such services will also be less.
Corruption: Some observations 1. Is Anna Hazare and his team's agitating for corruption or they are agitating now just to get the Lokpal Bill approved as per their agenda? Someone may argue that the second part is an integral part of the the first one. However, the second part is political tactics to create pressure and dictate the terms to the government to pass the bill as per their agenda. Anna Hazare and his team's main contribution has been to create more awareness among masses on corruption and bring the corruption issue to national agenda in order to make some kind of laws for reducing corruption from India. Howerver, there are already 29 laws or enactments for prevention and fighting corruption in this country. All have been a failure because lack of effective implementation. When the law enforcement agencies are labeled as the most corrupt in the country, the Lokpal system may meet the same fate. 2. It is argued that we live in a corrupt system. The system has been made corrupt from the two sources. First bureaucratic system and the second by political system. Bureaucrats are selected (through UPSC) and politicians are elected by the public. Both are labeled as corrupt. Corruption is a marriage of selection and election in this country. Electoral system and selection system of bureaucrats need to be revamped. Only then corruption will be reduced in this country. Lokpal only aims to punish corrupt people and not a prevention measure.
This policy is a deep one, soon reservation will have to be increased to 50% as a result of this policy. For soon under socio economic pressures many poor high class hindus may get converted to muslims for they cant become OBC or SC or ST to for reservations. It seems congress is making polcies of revenge not as service to country. See Lokpal bill mixed with quota. Diggu barks decided to bite RSS with this policy. Its really amazing Muslims who were rulers of this country for centuries. In 65 Congress made good progress they made rules of country for centuries poorer than anybody. Wonder who is responsible for all this? Anyway the solution is very simple Congress is declaring India a muslim nation indirectly. One cant become Sc/ St/ Obc but who stops them from converting to muslims. And enjoy reservation. Isnt it a dangerous policy ? Does Congress know what it is trying to do? Hardly any of our polititians has taken serious thought this point. Its really pathetic how irresponsibly our polititians are working against the countries secular interests
Anna has certainly brought corruption as the foremost topic of the year. But he should know that there is something called Law of Diminishing Returns. His teams insistence that only their bill is gospel is not acceptable ina democracy. As Mr Aiyar has said if we had a more efficient judiciary, the exixting laws would have sufficed to check corruption and other illegalities. Lokpal bill and Anna teams relentless methods have created too much bitterness. It would be worthwhile if a forum of sane thinking non-partisan persons call for a moratorium on this for one year for the passions to cool, and sober discussions take place.
The real Gandhi was representative of the spirit of most of the politicians at that time, ready to give blood for people. One wonders how the fake Gandhis became representative of the criminal politicians of the country ready to suck the blood of people for their survival. Just imagine what happens if you give the power of a great country to a waitress who may have not even read the Indian history, and a kid who failed his education. How could they understand the Karma theory of our tradition, and be ready to do something for our country?
India is filled with full of corruption by the grace of our leaders. The aim of our political parties is how best to retain/get power. Our Police are no doubt one of the best force in the world and can root out corruption or catch the terrorists provided Govt. wants it. Our judiciary if can speed up its procedures, many culprits who are roaming free would have been in jails by now. In our country an arrested minister& put in jail over corruption, becomes a strong cabinet minister in a couple of years. Govt. don't want to to be strict with corrupt, by nationalizing the black money unearthed during raids as many are either political leaders or their relatives. If the election commission verify the characters and conduct of at the time of accepting their nomination and maintain individual dosiare,s as was being done for the Govt. servants we may have good political leaders to a great extent. Govt. should make the people earn their food, then only people will know their responsibility
I fully endorse the views of the author..Anybody who dissents with Anna's views is construed as corrupt . That is a pity. If the existing laws are enforced strictly, corruption can definitely be eliminated. Instead, if you are inventing new system it is nothing but a futile exercise of wasting time, energy and paving a way for anarchism in the name of democracy.. By the way, why the author failed to mention the Disproportionate Wealth case of Ms.Jayalalitha which is dragging for 11 years and hearings getting postponed for flimsy reeasons
There is also plenty of corruption in the judiciary with exceptions. No body can question the judiciary.
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Real reform has to be in Judiciary particularly in cases adjournment of hearing on filmsy grounds. Bails conditions ought to commensurate crime and value / volume of crime and include substantial deposit & attachment and display of attachment of properties to compel rich & powerful to get case settled instead of prolonging it.
Agreed. But this is the current state. We should think of a better state and move in the right direction. This means that a strong lokpal is one of the steps in that direction. A strong lokpal will at least give out information about the corrupt. This can probably affect election results, even if the corrupt are not punished. Parties will have to think several times before giving such a person an election ticket. Not a small achievement. Further, there is nothing wrong in having a well thought and designed system with independent functions. Let the government look after the progress of the country. Let the strong lokpal with all investigative agencies ( CBI at national level, CID at local level) look after investigations. Let the judiciary judge on everybodys opinion before punishing the guilty. As many people do, if we start blaming human thinking itself as being corrupt, then there is no need of any system at all. Moreover, this is just half truth. Just like the thought process can be corrupt, so can it have the will to fight corruption.
A half filled glass of tea can bring different observations from Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, if asked twice. past data is misleading and Lokpal is a new system with new protocols ... this will act as a platform for reforms in other areas. No one is born corrupt, its the system which makes it...the fact of Jan Lokpal is about bringing a system...
We want a perfect system of time bound judiciary to address the requirement of 1.3 billion people.Whether it is pollution/corruption/ rape/murder/child abuse or dowry etc., are one and the same. "Delayed judgement = Crime by judiciary" be the motto of judiciary, and avoid it any how. Delayed judgments are for the next generation, which any how, they don't take it, since, how many of our youngsters know the severity and sufferings of the 1984 Bhopal disaster victims.
A strong Lokpal Act can trigger the beginning of reforms wherever they are needed. Judicial reforms and may be some others may have to follow suit. There is a need to start at some point. The enormous delay in enacting a Lokpal Act shows its potential to curb corruption. Not a single act has been debated to this length. Whether a strong Lokpal Act will produce results or not only time will tell. It is not wise to prejudge. Enough has been said about it. Those who oppose Lokpal Bill do not suggest how to curb corruption.
...and I am Sid Harth@mysistermarilynmonroe.com
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