The dust has settled!

At long last the dust has settled and sanity is almost restored. But unfortunately some are yet trying to incite people. While no one denies the freedom of expression, one has to recognize that so do others. SO LISTEN CAREFULLY and dont get caught in your mindset.

There was no reason why anyone wouldn't support such a generic cause as corruption. But it is quite possible that the thousands who gathered in Ramlila Maidan were not even aware what the real issues were involved. Several team members were wrongly that the methods being followed were Gandhian. Maybe Shri Anna Hazare is simple and sincere and honest man. But that doesnt qualify him to be a follower of Mahatma Gandhi. He has no doubt done good in his village which has been accepted by all. Gandhiji too hdstroct rules in hisashram but never forced them on anyone and those who did not wish to follow them were free to follow him from outside the ashram. Unfortunately, some of the younger members of his team were not born nor aware of Gandhiji's life and work. Enough has been said on this question and there is no need to repeat them.

There is however some important lessons to be learnt. That the Parliament should take note of the people's mood. And equally for civil society groups to realize that they must accept the Constitutional processes and respect the Parliament who are the elected members of the country. Any views to be presented should not be on any threat but with discussions have to be done with mutual respect. Calling names like 'liars', 'cheats'. 'thieves' is neither Gandhian or conducive to any meaningful talks.

However it has opened to a new avenue for taking various stake holders, like the public, law makers, judiciary and experts from social groups and organizations who have studied such problems in detail, into a committee authorized by the Parliament to evolve a consensus and a bill to be debated in the Parliament. This may force Govt and opposition parties to clearly spell out their views rather than resort to walkouts and stoppages of the functioning of the Parliament. This may avoid the situation from being a win-win situation but rather a well reasoned consensus to be debated by the Parliament.

Rightly, various other important issues have been raised viz electoral reforms, Judicial Accountability, education reforms, Grievance machinery for lower level Govt officials etc Special committees with experts from the Election Commission . ex CECs, judges, representatives from political parties, civil society members who are familiar with the present electoral system can be part of this Committee. A similar committee can be constituted for Judicial reforms with constitution experts, ex Chief Justices and others. Ideally, these committees should preferably not be chaired by political appointees but by independent experts from the judiciary.

We need systemic changes in Govt depts at all levels with the use of IT to establish procedures without giving any discretion and with timelines. Refusals can only be on procedural lapses and approvals have to be done within a time frame. Police depts. RTOs, Municipal organizations, registrar officers where there is cause to complain of corruption can be checked. We may need in every such office a vigilance officer who will take complaints of delays or bribe taking. Officials who work within the system and do their tasks on time may have to rewarded rather their asking for a bribe.

I am not a Constitutional expert but certainly we can evolve some system to promote a rational way of dealing with people's aspirations and make the Parliament more responsive to burning issues and engage in meaningful debates and discussions to pass important Bills with greater responsibility by both the Govt and other parties in the Parliament.