Of curare-coated crowns

I don't support Anna Hazare and I never did, and now, I'm feeling increasingly uncomfortable about some of his demands - just as uncomfortable as I was with that yoga guru's demands. I'll concede I have no solution of my making for the problems Hazare and Kejriwal seek to address, but that doesn't mean I'm obliged to side with them.

The most unsettling demands, in my opinion, are these:

1. Merging of the CVC and the CEC with the Lokpal


2. Bringing the higher judiciary under the purview of the Lokpal committee


3. Monitoring of ministers' behaviour inside the Houses of Parliament

Within the context of the Lokpal committee being incepted as a system independent of and parallel to the existing executive authority, the first two demands place the polity (and the judiciary, for that matter) under increased stress because, in the absence of the Lokpal, it has no reason to explain its actions. With the inclusion of the Lokpal, the polity benefits if and only if it misbehaves because it will then immediately charge the rights' activists to take action. However, when the polity is doing right what it must do right, it will still be obliged to answer to the activists' questions. That is a waste of invaluable time, and who's to say the Lokpal committee's members will be equipped to understand diplomacy and policies of the incumbent government on all levels?

If this is the point of contention that leaves the Bill deadlocked, I will actually be happy with the UPA's decisions.

The third point of contention could find widespread support, but soon enough, don't you think any parliamentarian's behaviour is going to be forced into goodness and not come off its own volition? It's not fair to monitor their behaviour simply because they've behaved badly in the past! In fact, I deem it far better to consider it a shame to have an elected man jump up and down on a desk than be proud about a "classroom of ministers". The political dignity of a nation depends on the political dignity of its ministers, and the political dignity of the ministers is nothing but their individual and personal dignity, and constant monitoring of their behaviour is not going to fix their dignity but only frustrate it. Even more: don't you feel it does a terrible injustice to the likes of Dr. Manmohan Singh, Dr. Subramaniam Swamy and Jaswant Singh, who are more than capable of engaging their opponents in formal debate, let alone behave accordingly?

A frustration with the existing political institution accumulated over years is not an excuse to displace that institution - or attempt to reinforce it with extra-judicial bodies. It is only an excuse to people it more sensibly - the system has not failed, it's the people who have!