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The Anna Hazare challenge
Where Congress went wrong
by Kuldip Nayar
I
TOO had tried for conciliation between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Gandhian Anna Hazare on the Jan Lokpal Bill (anti-corruption ombudsman). This was on the fifth day of Hazare's fast and his movement against corruption had brought thousands of people on the streets throughout the country.Soon after I heard Dr Manmohan Singh saying on television networks that the government was open to a “discussion or dialogue” on the Lokpal Bill placed before Parliament, I saw an aperture of opportunity. That very afternoon, I went to meet Hazare whom I knew a bit. I found him prepared for a compromise provided the three basic conditions were substantially met. The first condition was the independence of the judiciary. I told him to have a Lokpal exclusively for the judiciary. Hazare readily agreed to it. The second was the Prime Minister. Hazare was willing to divide the office in two parts, one relating to governance and the other to acts of corruption. He only wanted to pursue the instance of corruption if prima facie a case was established as enunciated in the Lokpal Bill, Hazare's version. The third condition was the independence of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Hazare agreed to place the organization under the Supreme Court until the modified Lokpal Bill was passed in Parliament. I did not speak to the Prime Minister directly, but someone who knows him personally conveyed what Hazare had conceded. The Prime Minister's reply was not helpful. He said that Hazare should go before the Parliament Standing Committee which was discussing the matter. The plea that he should invite Hazare to a special sitting of all political parties was also rejected by the Prime Minister. I find that what the government has agreed to after three days of my initiative is more or less the same. The Prime Minister and the CBI will come under the ambit of the Lokpal. The judiciary will be independent of the Lokpal, under a judicial commission to be finalised in consultation with Hazare. One thing that came out clearly from the brief exercise that I undertook was Hazare's humility and the government's arrogance. And I do not know why it believes that by running him down it would be in a better position to deal with him. First, the Congress party's Young Turk, Mr Manish Tewari, abuses him. Mr Tewari is followed by Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal who do not use foul language but make fun of Hazare. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was more cynical and characterises his methods as "misconceived". The Prime Minister should know that Mahatma Gandhi, Father of the Nation, went on indefinite fasts many times and offered Satyagrah against the British rulers during the freedom struggle. As if abuses were not enough, the government and the Congress have told the nation, no more gullible, that Hazare is being helped by a foreign hand. Will it give us any proof since the government talks about transparency day in and day out? Indira Gandhi, who imposed the Emergency and detained 100,000 people without trial, called Gandhian Jayaprakash Narayan, the spirit of the movement at that time, a CIA agent. The Congress was defeated at the polls as it looks happening in the 2013 general election. All this is probably history. But the nation should also learn a lesson. One cannot fix the date or insist publicly on treading a particular path. The consensus is important and there has to be a give and take so that the majority and the minority are brought around to accept the compromise formula. The Congress has never liked dissent or defiance. It treats every popular movement as a law and order problem. That is the reason why it has not yet understood the rationale of any popular outburst. Hazare is only the face of people's resentment against the government. The government is still oblivious to the countrywide resentment against it. Either its intelligence agencies are deluding it or it is merely reflecting the mentality of dictators. For the youth, the movement has been a catharsis of their failings, not having ideals any more or not following any value-based system. It has seen in Hazare's movement a chance to restore the line that Indira Gandhi had erased between right and wrong, moral and immoral. They have rediscovered the Gandhi cap which has represented self-sufficiency and our assertion against the rulers' suppression. The Congress should have commended the awakening among the youth instead of using wrong tactics to defame the movement. The youth is confused by Ms Aruna Roy's open criticism of Hazare's Lokpal Bill. He himself realises some of its limitations. But the activists cannot afford to show division in their ranks when the government is out to crush a movement that has caught the people's imagination. I respect Aruna's integrity and the tremendous work she has done to get the Right to Information Act on the structure. But I felt disappointed that she had to voice her opposition at a time when the movement was facing the government's hostility. I am glad she has put before the nation a third draft of the Lokpal Bill. But it too suffers from many limitations. Foreign media again got it all wrong. It has been conveying that India was going the way of the Arab countries and might throw out the government. This is not true. The Arab nations have never enjoyed democracy. People there want freedom to govern themselves. In India, people have that freedom already they express themselves the way they want. They carry no guns like the Arab countries. The behaviour of America or the UK after 9/11 has been undemocratic and anti-people. Because of their fear of terrorists, the two nations have accepted the restriction on individual freedom and adopted such laws as make a mockery of their traditional right to say. Dr Manmohan Singh could have probably retrieved the situation if he had been his own master. Since the return of Congress Secretary-General Rahul Gandhi from America, where his mother, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, has had an operation for cancer, the entire strategy of the government has changed. Power has shifted to 24 Abkar Road, the Congress headquarters. Today, everything around the Prime Minister has fallen and he is a lonely person. But he has to blame himself for the dismal surrender by the government. He refused to make up with Hazare when the latter was willing to meet him more than half way. The Prime Minister can take the stand that he had to take along the Congress President and his Cabinet members. But posterity will blame him for having kept the nation on tenterhooks for a week
unnecessarily.
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Conditions apply!
by B.K.Karkra
CORRUPTION really runs deep in our system and people are absolutely fed up with this state of affairs. It, however, is not limited to politicians and bureaucrats alone. It permeates our entire society.A few years back, I purchased an airconditioner from a company that promised that I would be provided three-day free stay for two in hotels at different destinations within or outside the country according to my choice. After the purchase, the shopkeeper assured me that I would soon receive vouchers from the company in performance of their promise. As they appeared to have conveniently forgotten about their commitment, I reminded them about it and they did send me the vouchers loaded with their conditions. I was to pay a substantial amount towards service charges, give them a long notice with three choices in terms of destinations and the time period and certain premium periods were out-of-bounds for me. I complied with all these. There was no response from the representatives of the company till the last moment. It was abundantly clear to me that besides the escalated price of the AC with the lure attached to it, it had also misappropriated some more money in the name of service charge for the promised tour. The notice that I gave them for their fraudulent ways was taken by them in their stride. I had to thus file a case against them in the District Consumer Forum which has its own requirements. I was first told to have my petition retyped leaving sufficient space on the top for the forum to do some scribbling and also attach a postal order for Rs 100 with it. I complied with this all. The forum then demanded that I should produce the copy of the advertisement of the company offering free stay for tours. This had already been trashed by me. But, as an advocate, I was able to convince the forum that the promise to provide free stay at various destinations was, indeed, made by the company. They kindly agreed to issue a notice to them. However, their office insisted that they were out of funds and I should issue the notice on their behalf myself. They, however, agreed to put the stamps of the forum on the envelopes. This finally made the company to offer me free stay for the promised tour and also five thousand rupees towards expenses. I, thus, got even with them so far as my own case was concerned. But, all this left me thinking that it was a rather easy getaway for the fraudulent company. They should have been proceeded against criminally, as they must have made substantial money by duping others. It was thus abundantly obvious to me that corruption was not limited to the governments — the whole of the country was knee deep in it. This is how Anna has emerged as the darling of the nation
today.
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Violence most foul
Rape, a widespread crime against women, shows little signs of abating. The unbearable trauma that a rape victim has to bear is further compounded by the insensitive laws and the “couldn’t care less” attitude of the law-enforcing machinery. Until rapists are dealt with severely, the offence will continue to breed and grow
Shree Venkatram
 Rape is one of the most heinous crimes, impacting the victim for life. Given its enormity, it should be considered next only to murder. Sadly, it has not been given the attention it needs by social scientists, law makers and justice dispensers. When two Class IX boys attempt to rape a Class I girl, as in a Bathinda school recently, it is time society introspected. What kind of signals are we sending out to our young?The National Crime Records Bureau had termed rape "India's fastest growing crime". We have complete figures for 2009, when according to the NCRB, a total of 21,397 rape incidents were reported countrywide. Add to this, 25,741 cases of kidnapping and abduction of women and 38,711 cases of molestation, and you get 235 reported cases of molestation/rape/ abduction of women every day. These are just the reported cases. Most, especially molestation and rape cases, go unreported in the name of guarding 'family honour'.
Convoluted sense of justice  Let us examine some recent sentences proclaimed by our justice dispensers and the messages these have sent out to society. A few months ago the Supreme Court decided to let off three farmers, who had been convicted of gang raping a woman in Ludhiana district. A sessions court had awarded a 10-year imprisonment to them. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had upheld their conviction, following which, the criminals appealed to the Supreme Court. Their sentence was cut short after a few years under a "compromise formula" that entailed paying Rs 50,000 each to the victim.
The rapists had appealed to be let off as "they and the victim were happily married to their spouses" and "wanted to live peacefully". The fact that the victim is "happily married" is no credit to the rapists. Did the judges ascertain the happiness quotient of the criminals' marriages? Did they speak to their wives? Men who rape, make for draconian and violent husbands. As far as "wanting to live peacefully is concerned", it is easy to say that after committing a violent crime. The fact that they can indulge in rape makes them dangerous criminals. If they could do that to one woman, they can inflict themselves on another. How does the court ensure that this does not happen? The National Council for Women has asked for a review of the case for it sets a bad precedence of reaching a compromise in rape cases, where conviction rates are extremely low anyway.
Wrong signals embolden rapistsIt is not surprising that such a judgement should come from our highest court. The former Chief Justice of India, K G Balakrishnan, is reported to have said that society and the state must respect the decision of a rape victim if she chooses to marry the rapist. His words as reported by a newspaper: "Due regard must be given to their personal autonomy since in some cases victims may choose to marry the perpetrator." Imagine the trauma of a woman having to spend her life with a man who has raped her? It is like inflicting a lifelong sentence of mental and physical cruelty on her, while the man goes scot free. And then, what would prevent the rapist from marrying the victim to escape punishment and then deserting her? This kind of a mindset furthers the warped view society holds that marriage is the be all and end all for a woman. And that it is better to marry a man who has raped you than not marry at all! Now look at the punishment a panchayat in Ghaziabad meted out to an rapist uncle: It ruled that five smacks with a shoe was enough punishment for raping his niece. In another case, also in Ghaziabad, a five-year-old was raped by her 19-year-old cousin. But the family chose to keep quiet, not even getting medical attention for the little girl. She was sent to school the next day where she complained of abdominal pain and died. It was only then that the parents approached the police. The girl's mother said she had raised an alarm when she saw the cousin raping the child. The family elders had caught him, slapped him and let him off. Consider now how these family elders and panchayats handle youngsters who marry outside their caste group or marry within their own gotra. The punishment has ranged from social ostracism to even death! Obviously, rape is considered a minor crime compared to violation of caste and kinship lines.
Compounding victims' trauma The law as it stands today is weak and archaic. Apart from woefully inadequate sentences, it only recognises vaginal rape and does not believe that children below 12 can be raped. Women's groups have been demanding its amendment but though decades have passed, the bill is still in a draft stage. The Aruna Shanbaug case illustrates the complete warpedness of our justice system. While Aruna, the nurse who was raped and maimed for life has been lying in a hospital bed for the last 37 years, the rapist, ward boy Sohanlal Walmiki, is a free man today. He is said to have changed his name, moved to Delhi with his family where he works in a hospital. He was imprisoned for only seven years for attacking her and stealing her jewellery, but not for rape as it was anal and not vaginal rape he indulged in as Aruna was menstruating at that time. What kind of justice is this? The death penalty awarded to rapist and murderer Santosh Kumar Singh was commuted to a life sentence because of what is termed as "mitigating circumstances". Among them were that he was "young, just 24 years old" at the time of his crime. At 24 years, one is an adult! The fact that he was "married" and "the father of a girl child" were the other "mitigating" factors. Now, how does this help either the wife or the daughter? They have to fend for themselves anyway and live with the knowledge of having a rapist and murderer as a husband and father for the rest of their lives. In fact, the law should give the wife and children of a rapist the choice to walk off from the relationship with no legal binding on their part, while retaining all their rights on the family property. If the wife has the option of being legally freed of the relationship, she can think of starting her life again. It is extremely traumatic for a young girl to grow up knowing her father is a rapist. In fact, such men are best kept away from their daughters. We have also had judgments where the sentence was commuted when the rapist passed a civil services exam. What is the message that went out? That if you pass the exam, all will be forgiven and you will occupy an important government post. In fact, the opposite should be the case. Convicted rapists who have served their term in jail should be debarred from holding a government job.
Need for unorthodox methods The law must acknowledge that rape mars a person for life. The condition has been recognised as Rape Trauma Syndrome where the victim suffers from phobias and nightmares and feels emotionally crippled, unable to form meaningful relationships and friendships for life. Kamini Lau, Delhi's additional sessions judge, recently called for a public debate on “chemical and surgical castration” of child rapists and serial offenders as an alternative punishment. She said this while delivering a sentence for a man who raped his minor step daughter for four years. Chemical castration is being used in parts of United States and many European countries, with the rapist's consent. Sweden, France and Germany are among them. In Poland it is mandatory. A province in Argentina is the latest to adopt it. It involves an injection of an anti-pregnancy drug every three months to lower libido and uncontrolled sexual impulses. There is much evidence in the medical and psychiatric world that a rapist cannot be cured unless there is a medical intervention. It is time to act. There can be no compromises with a rapist. The writer works in the development sector
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