Do we really support the Lokpal Bill?

Anna Hazare has made some great noises and started a great process.  The government has buckled under the pressure to offer us the passage of the Lokpal Bill, which, when it comes into law, will allow us to prosecute the corrupt, rather quickly, and effectively, depending upon the final draft that comes into force.

This doesn't mean we will suddenly see corruption go away.  It means, if we want, we can prosecute without the usual hindrances.  It will still take considerable effort to use the Lokpal to put away corrupt individuals.

The urban middle class of India is the most politically inactive but fashionably righteousness conscious demographic of this country.  It is a mindset, indeed, and we are mad about a lot of things, but unwilling to unleash that anger on anything that will get something done.

So, how about including a small clause in the Lokpal bill that makes it a crime to notice a crime and not report it?  After all, corruption, as we call it is a bloody crime.  It is thievery, blackmail, denial of rights to people coming through the fair competition route, and anti-national to the core.  So, let's bring in a healthy dose of the words "crime" and "criminal" into this revolution!  In other words, if you pay a bribe, you're a bloody criminal as much as the pig who takes bribe - for whatever reason!

Unless we, the people of India are under threat of being prosecuted for a criminal offence, we will not report crime like we should.  So, how about making this Lokpal Bill include us and our brothers and sisters across the expanse of this nation of India not just responsible but actually culpable to the crime of corruption?  Should it not be our duty to report crime?  How about enforcing this duty as well?

Blackmail is a crime, and bribery more often than not, is blackmail, when demanded for a legal procedure.  If the procedure is illegal - well, that is already a crime, isn't it?  We seem to treat corruption as some kind of common cold, while murder, rape and other more spectacular deeds are more like heart attacks!  This must change.  If it is illegal, it is a crime against the nation's rightful progress, and a bloody crime against the nation.

Why do we suddenly want more laws?  The Lokpal Bill is just another law coming into effect, isn't it?  We already have plenty of mechanisms that we have eroded, ignored, or abused, like the Vigilance Commission.  Why is the Lokpal going to be any different?  Legislation is not going to solve any problem we face in India.  Enforcement can.  We are not good at this.  The first step to enforcing any law or prevent the escape of those breaking the law is reporting.  We need at the very minimum, a robust reporting mechanism, that should not be reserved for spectacular crimes.

Can we please let the Lokpal drafting committee know that it should be legally incumbent and binding upon the citizenry to report crime?  After all we are, by virtue of half the members of this committee being from civil society, absolutely responsible for making it work, whether the government does its part or not!  Also, when the government would love to prosecute its citizens for not reporting, it would have to acknowledge the crime as having taken place, and will have to prosecute the other side as well!  What a beautifully binding marriage this!

The most spectacular crime, by the sheer scale of practice, that most Indians participate in, is apathy.  If we support the Lokpal Bill's passage, we should have no problem accepting an anti-apathy clause as well.  What do you say, flag wavers?  Ready to do some real work?

- BSK.

It's blackmail, your lowness!

My mother tries it once in a while, for something silly, like trying to get me to dress rather well for a sombre occasion. I'd choose to wear simple clothes, perhaps too pedestrian but not untidy, and she would like me to be "neat". My mom will try, "Why don't you use any of those really nice shirts you have?" before "Well, I'd definitely like to see you dressed neatly in a big gathering", before the inevitable, "I wish I had brought you up to understand this culture some more"!

It's the tone of blackmail, of somehow hoping that I wouldn't want her to feel bad, that irks me, much more than her refusal to accept defeat with grace. Luckily, I don't give in to blackmail ever, and my Mom behaves better. See, even elders need training.

A friend of mine is going through a terrible situation in a relationship, where the other person is blackmailing him by refusing to eat. The blackmail is aimed at getting him back in a relationship that is over, for whatever reason. I hope he won't give in, more than knowing him to be strong enough to not give in. If the other person dies, it will be an awful event, but as far as I am concerned, no more ugly than getting into a relationship by being blackmailed to do so. That would be lifelong slavery. Much worse compared to the freedom of death - bye bye blackmailer. You want to starve yourself to death? Go right ahead! I'm not about to go down for your stupidity!

The thing about blackmail is that it is low, demeaning, and outright disrespectful. It should be treated with disdain, wherever it is employed. From the traffic cop who threatens you with a huge ticket if you don't pay the bribe, to the loan shark who threatens to yell so your neighbours will hear, blackmailers should be given nothing. There is no healthy level to this menace when it starts so low.

Many a time, we don't quite realize we're being blackmailed. Even beggars use it very well by touching you - knowing fully well that you hate being touched by those filthy fingers, and you will pay to have them go away! When transvestites walk into your shop and put on a vulgar dance, they bloody well know you want them out of sight hence you will pay! Flatly refuse and what are they going to do? Stay put at your shop the whole day? Absolutely not.

Sometimes we imagine we can afford the monetary loss in silly blackmail plots going right for the blackmailers. But what we are setting up is a system of blackmailers who will without a doubt grow in scale and range of operations. In a spectacular incident, it was awful to see India come to its knees because of a bunch of hijackers who threatened to blow up an Indian Airlines plane full of passengers in Khandahar. Without a question of a doubt, I would have ordered the Indian Air Force to bomb the stranded plane and its environs to smithereens and faced the fallout later. I would have publicly exterminated every one of the criminals the hijackers wanted released. And we would have won, instead of saving a few lives and hanging the entire nation's head in shame.

The immature question to ask would be - "Would you have ordered that bombing if one of your relatives was on board?" My answer - "I'd definitely not back off my plan to victory just because one of my relatives' lives stood in the way". No, it isn't ego. It is an answer, plain and simple. Pushed to the extreme, we can't be changing who we are. Blackmail with the threat of death and destruction should be answered with death and destruction. It is a low scrap we are being pulled into, and if we want to keep our high standards, we should be strong enough to step out of our sterilized lives once in a while and use everything within our power to fend off the low challenger.

Blackmail doesn't give us any respectable options, so what honour can there be in giving in to it?