Why shouldn’t the Jan Lokpal Bill be subject to broad public participation and discourse?
During the drafting stage, the Jan Lokpal Bill is being exposed to public debate like no other bill in the past has. Numerous suggestions from various groups and individuals who have come forward to participate have already been included and will continue to do so till the date of finalization. A dedicated website, lokpalbillconsultation.org, is gathering inputs from the entire country. Public consultations are planned to be held throughout the country. Pamphlets are being printed for handing out to various public institutions and communities.
The bill drafting committee should not include members from the civil society. Bypassing democratic processes for political expediency however desirable the outcome, may be detrimental to democracy itself.
Generally, bills presented in parliament are drafted by government bureaucrats and other non-elected people, and rarely by the politicians (people’s representatives). In the drafting committee for the Jan Lokpal Bill, with equal representation from civil society and government, the step is only more democratic, not less.
Most importantly, the parliament will ultimately debate and vote on the draft, so who drafted the bill becomes less important. Committees for drafting bills have several times taken members from the civil society in the past – Maharashtra has enacted 7 acts like this.
As a side note, most bureaucrats have little field experience in social issues, and are confined to think only of authoritarian/undemocratic structures and processes. Several laws passed after independence like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, POTA, etc. are evidence of such autocratic thinking. Thus, a genuine people’s participation in the drafting committee will only result in more open and democratic national laws.
The drafting panel doesn't have a broad representation and doesn't include other eminent people or activists.
First of all, Anna said he will travel around the country collecting all ideas for an effective bill. A dedicated website, lokpalbillconsultation.org, is gathering inputs from the entire country. Public consultations are being held in different parts of the country. So, not being on the panel shouldn't prevent anybody including eminent people from submitting their ideas.
Second, can NAC be said to have a broad-based representation? How do members of NAC get chosen? Is there a transparent process for that? What is the constitutional validity of NAC?
Why not include other parties in the drafting panel instead of the Bhushans father-son duo?
The chief criterion for selection of the civil society members in the drafting committee was to select those people who had drafted the Jan Lokpal Bill. They are the only people who can explain all the background reasoning for having the various clauses and the interrelationships among them. People unfamiliar with the thought process behind drafting the bill will be unlikely to explain various subtleties of this complex legislation during the JDC’s meetings.
In addition, Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan are both eminent jurists whose services are much needed in reviewing and drafting the final bill. The fact that they happen to be father and son is irrelevant. Charges of nepotism are meaningless because nepotism implies that the one of them was able to get the other accepted to the panel using their influence.
Government’s representatives in the committee are the true representatives of the people of India.
Not true. There is no member of the opposition in the government’s team of five. Opposition parties, also elected democratically just like the ruling party, form an essential constituent of a functioning democracy, and thus should have been included from the government’s side.
Courtesy: Indiaagainstcorruption.org
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