Is Jan Lok Pal Bill evil?

It is interesting to see all the intelligentsia coming in with their magnifying glasses and scrutinizing and critizing the minutae of the proposed draft of the bill. Constructive criticism will no doubt lead to a better bill, but I have an axe to grind with those who are summarily dismissive of the entire proposal.

I think we need to step back and look at the larger picture here. It is not the time to stand in impartial judgement over our civic activists. I don't think it's sufficient to be intellectually honest in these times, you have to be politically savvy. You have to figure out which side you are on!!! Politicians are very good at it. When the chips are down, they'll do anything to counter it, and get as close to power as possible. It is them that we are dealing with. Take the allegations against the bhushan's. Each allegation has another dimension to it, which involves politicians. And even if true, I think it ought to be much more damaging to the politicians than the bhushan's. Yet, no one is asking for head of politicians involved, the political chorus is only interested in bhusan's stepping down. You don't have to be an einstein to figure out who gains from all this. My personal view is that even if bhushan's are guilty, they can do no harm in helping with drafting of this bill, which is anyway being driven so transparently.

To the cynics of the bill, I want them to ponder over the following. Corruption is rampant, we all experience it every day, but not a single person is punished. This is despite all the media reports and awareness. Our PM claims he is bound by coalition politics. So, how do you propose to fix it? If you can come up with a comprehensive solution, present it and convince a larger set of people that your solution works. If not, step aside and don't create hurdles for those who are trying to do that. I seriously believe that if you spend enough time to understand the current system, and analyze why it fails so miserably, you will realize that there is no such thing as a perfect system. In fact, the current system is quite perfect theoretically, becasue it vests most powers in the elected government. But, this debate is not about theory, it's about practice.

When we have seen the theory to fail miserably, we have to go back to the drawing board to restate the assumptions (in this case that the elected representatives are supreme) and change the heuristics. I think this movement is about going from just "democracy" to "accountable and transparent democracy". The set of activists have studied this problem from within and have come up with some (maybe drastic) suggestions on how to fix it. It is not sufficient to say that their solution is not good enough (no solution will ever be good enough for everyone), but take it further and propose a better solution. And explain how the better solution will help to punish those who have been so deftly manouvering the current system.

It is easy to sit in judgement and pass comments, but it is another thing to work at your convictions and make things happen. I know better ideas exist, but I'll any day accept (and actively support) a sub-optimal idea which gets converted into practice over a brilliant idea which is never implemented!!! And I think we all need to do that for our own good...