In the latest episode of Barkha Dutt’s ‘We the People’, I argue that the Anna Hazare movement is driven by the urban middle-class, and this is reflected in the peculiarities of the Jan Lok Pal Bill. I also argue that the ideal Lok Pal must be one who is not ‘all-powerful’ (i.e. a sitting PM, higher judiciary, and MPs acting within Parliament must be outside its ambit), but one who is completely ‘independent’. As I perhaps imprudently accused Justice Santosh Hegde: If his Jan Lok Pal Bill was law under Indira Gandhi’s regime, she might well have used it to jail his father, the great judge K.S. Hegde (who stood up to Madam Gandhi).
I will be engaging in an online debate with the readers of rediff.com tomorrow (Tuesday, 23rd August) at 4pm. Please login to take the discussion forward.
