Lokpal Bill Faces Heavy Criticism

     Political dispute over proposed federal anti-corruption legislation splashed across the front pages of newspapers across the country again this week. The second largest coalition member of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the Trinamool Congress (TMC), has officially affirmed their intention to vote in opposition unless sections pertaining to state-administered Lokayuktas (corruption investigation organizations) are struck. Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee cites communication problems as the cause of recent public disagreements between her congress and other coalition members, most importantly the Indian National Congress (INC). This included disagreement over a recent proposal to open retail to foreign direct investment, an initiative Banerjee has vocally opposed in every election since her expulsion from the INC and the founding of her party. Despite only controlling 18 seats in the 543 member Lok Sabha, India's lower house, opposition from the TMC poses a serious threat in what promises to be a close vote. 

     If defeated the bill will be laid to rest in a growing graveyard of failed anti-corruption legislative reforms. Doomed anti-corruption bills were presented in 1968, 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, and 2001, with each bill granting the ombudsman various degrees of authority. The current legislation follows a slew of corruption allegations undermining the credibility of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his ruling party. Among them included a wide variety of allegations surrounding the contracts and government coordination of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, and the 2G Spectrum scandal where government officials failed to collect the actual value of frequency allocation licenses, resulting in $33 billion in lost revenues. The scandals have fuelled a protest movement led by 74 year old activist Anna Hazaré, who successfully galvanized support for comprehensive anti-corruption legislation with a hunger strike in the spring of 2011.

Anna Hazaré

     The Indian National Congress argues that the new bill provides important new avenues for enforcement of existing laws, allowing a newly appointed committee to investigate the Prime Minister (except on matters of national security), public servants, and any entity that receives donations from foreign sources in excess of 1 million rupees. Upon indictment offenders may face up to ten years in prison. However, Hazaré argues the bill is insufficient in three key areas. First, the new ombudsman group is selected by the chief justice of India, a jurist, the PM, the opposition leader in the lower house, and the speaker of the lower house. Hazaré points out that the selection committee will therefore be government dominated, or at least heavily politically influenced. Second, the legislation does not grant the committee power scrutinize the Central Bureau of Investigation, India's largest security agency. Finally, Hazaré alleges that extending the committee's purview to include all entities that receive a certain level of foreign funding will take the focus off government corruption.