Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Two voices on Lokpal by Archis Mohan

Two voices on Lokpal by Archis Mohan

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Jan 9, 2012   modified Modified on Jan 9, 2012

A communications expert who advises the Prime Minister and a Harvard law graduate who helped Rahul Gandhi’s team draft the Lokpal bill differed on the need for an anti-corruption ombudsman, as the now-shelved legislation dominated an NRI meet today.

Sam Pitroda and G. Mohan Gopal came up with different perspectives on the bill on the second day of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, held every year since 2003 to mark Mahatma Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa.

Gandhi had landed in India on January 9, 1915, after over two decades abroad.

Pitroda, Manmohan Singh’s adviser on public information infrastructure and innovations, said a Lokpal wasn’t the magic wand to cleanse India of corruption, and called for technology to bring about transparency faster as legislating anti-graft laws could take nearly a decade.

He said corruption, which has existed for thousands of years, was a problem across the world, whether in America, Iran, China or India. “It will be around what you do or don’t do,” he said, adding that people needed to “go back to doing their work” instead of waiting for India to become “corruption-free and (then) start their work”.

But Gopal, director at the Sonia Gandhi-led Rajiv Gandhi Foundation’s Institute of Contemporary Studies and the principal drafter of the government’s version of the Lokpal bill, took up a session to defend the legislation.

He blamed “political divisions” for holding up the law, which, according to the government’s draft, would have covered the higher bureaucracy, the segment he blamed for much of the country’s ills.

Gopal singled out the Indian Administrative Service for criticism and called for ending a “colonial mindset”.

“The IAS has outlived its utility,” he said, adding that the country “cannot have generalists running policy” at a time when that work needed to be done by specialists.

The Harvard Law School graduate said constitutional status for the proposed Lokpal — a proposal flagged by Congress general secretary Rahul — could have gone a long way in creating a corruption-free system.

Gopal, who worked in the World Bank’s legal departments from 1986 to 2004, said Indian bureaucrats had a “closed mindset” and were “afraid of specialised knowledge”.

Not even once during his long stint at the Bank did an IAS officer “pick up his phone and ask (him) for help”, he added.

He said India was a “superpower but also super poor”, a comment that drew a warning from MP Shashi Tharoor, who cautioned him that such statements could come back to haunt him in the form of “scandalous headlines” the next day.

Several non-resident Indians spoke of harassment by bureaucrats. Rashmi Dickinson, a cardiologist from the UK, said her trust that runs 20 schools in a district in Rajasthan was facing 67 inquiries because she tried to save a heritage structure and came into conflict with a corrupt IAS officer.

“I am absolutely devastated. Don’t lead us lambs to the slaughter when you ask NRIs to return to India to contribute,” she said. Tharoor promised to take up her case.


The Telegraph, 9 January, 2012, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120109/jsp/nation/story_14981451.jsp


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close