For all the brou·ha·ha - Pause before you leap...

Dear Citizens and Well-Wishers of India,

The "how" person that I am, I decided to see how the Jan Lokpal Bill is planning to create a machinery that will service the complaints of every tom-dick-and-harry.  Here is the snippet from the draft document ....

CHAPTER VII

PROCEDURE IN RESPECT OF INQUIRY AND INVESTIGATION

Provisions relating to complaints and inquiry and investigation.

23. (1) The Lokpal, on receipt of a complaint, may either make preliminary inquiry or direct its Investigation Wing, to make a preliminary investigation to ascertain whether there exists a prima facie case for proceeding in the matter.

(2) Every preliminary inquiry or preliminary investigation referred to in sub‐section (1) shall ordinarily be completed within a period of thirty days and for reasons to be recorded in writing, within a further period of three months from the date of receipt of the complaint.

Lets fast-forward for fun - The Jan Lokpal Bill is passed and all the powers of the country are handed over to this "Uber - Anti-Corruption" department. Investigation, Judiciary, Law & Order and other departments owe their allegiance to this group.  Their shop opens for complaints against government servants (there are apparently 18.7 Million government employees today).  Each one of us is trigger-happy to file a complaint against that friendly neighborhood policeman or RTO or Sub-Registrar or that "pain-in-the-behind" public servant.  

Do you honest-to-yourself believe that your issue will be magically resolved? Will you get a response, let alone closure, within one-month as promised above?  Let's take the huge leap of faith and assume that all corrupt police officers, RTOs, Sub-Registrars etc are suspended in right earnest.  Yahoooo!!! [Thank you, Shammiji].  Now what - Who is going to man the police stations or the RTO's or the Registration departments. After all, 90% of the officials are corrupt, right.  Will the citizens act responsibly and function normally without the aid of these officals?  Will this "Uber - Anti-Corruption" department now become world's biggest recruiter.  Maybe they will contract recruiting companies to get honest candidates.  No, wait - None of the recruiting companies are honest with such flair for 'as-needed' resume service.  For that matter, none of the candidates are honest either - with all the fake degrees, projects and experience ...

Lets get back to reality - Much exciting as this whole movement sounds, its implementation and execution is froth with flaws even for the most experienced organizational leaders.  No CEO will undertake this objective of corruption-hatao in one sweep.  For a society with corruption indoctrinated in each cell of the body, you need to clear the disease in bits and pieces, lest you kill the entire race.

How do we go about this?  We don't have to look far - The Jago Party has been fighting this menace for over 3 years now.  They have mastered the process necessary to pursue corruption. Here is an email they send for each complaint..

Your complaint has been forwarded to The Anti-Corruption Bureau, Mozamjahi Market, M J Road, Hyderabad - 500 001 vide Courier Dispatch No. 580601542 Dated �3.01.2011.We expect that concerned officers will take strict action promptly. Otherwise, Jago Party shall take suitable action under RTI Act, anti-corruption acts etc to get this problem resolved. Jago Party shall move application under RTI Act, if no suitable action is taken within 30 days. 

Another example - the Loksatta party lead by Dr. JP Narayan points that 85% of the governance and thereby corrpution is rooted in the state level.  For those who have missed the trend, Central government has been decentralizing the running of this country for over 40 years now!!!  Fighting the Central Government is not going to help much.  For every Telecom scam there are hundreds of such scams right in our own state backyard.  

Most recently, your own Mr.Santosh Hegde, has demonstrated to the world how this battle needs to be fought with great success.  Hard as it was, the results were outright motivating to all the citizens of this country.

Here is my suggestion to Team Anna and other well wishers - If you really want to help alleviate the common man from pains of corruption, please push at the state (Lok Ayukta) level and with groups such as Jago party to strengten existing practices.  Understand the real bottlenecks they face as they fight this disease bottoms-up.  Help create legislative amendments necessary to aid these systems.  Please dont propose new godzillas and frankensteins that none of you have ever built or managed before.  Fix the gaps in the prevailing ACB, CVC, CBI, Judiciary sub-systems.  Form functional TASKFORCES with grassroots representation at the state and local levels.  Work with a couple of "Model" states and get the ball rolling.  Showcase to yourself and to the rest of the world before taking a next step.  Every mile starts with a first step...

NOTE:  Please dont propose new godzillas and frankensteins that none of you have ever built or managed before.  Bite what you can chew.