Indian Anti Corruption Movement?
Answers
2011 Indian anti-corruption movement
Anna Hazare's hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, on the second day of his fast
Date4 April 2011 – 28 December 2011Location
India
Caused byCorruption in public life
Government corruption[1][2]
Police corruption[2]
Judicial corruption[1]
Corporate corruption[2]
Kleptocracy[2]
Electoral fraud[3]
Red tape[2][4]
Discretionary powers of politician[1]
Black money[5]
Goals
Enactment of anti-corruption legislature, Jan Lokpal Bill[6] for ombudsman
MethodsNon violent protestResulted in
Resolution passed in Parliament accepting Jan Lokpal Bill on 27 August 2011, Government again withdrawn Resolution on 22 December 2011, Government Cabinet introduced The Lokpal Bill, 2011 in the parliament but failed to pass.
protests renewed in 2012 when Rajya Sabha failed to pass the Bill
1 Dead or more,[7]54 injured[8]
CasualtiesDeath(s)1
The movement gained momentum from 5 April 2011, when anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare began a hunger strike at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. The chief legislative aim of the movement was to alleviate corruption in the Indian government through introduction of the Jan Lokpal Bill. Another aim, spearheaded by Ramdev, was the repatriation of black money from Swiss and other foreign banks.
Grievances of mass protesters focussed on legal and political issues, including political corruption, kleptocracy, and other forms of corruption. The movement was primarily one of non-violent civil resistance, featuring demonstrations, marches, acts of civil disobedience, hunger strikes, and rallies, as well as the use of social media to organise, communicate, and raise awareness. The protests were nonpartisan and most protesters were hostile to attempts made by political parties to use them to strengthen their own political agendas.
These days corruption is the word occurring maximum in the print and electronic media and the mind of the people in India today is constantly preoccupied with no other item as the issue of corruption. There are scams galore today which is happening in every corner of our country so that the country is even nicknamed as “Scamstan” which means land of scams. Perhaps in India the most chanted word next to Gods name is Corruption. According to Elliot and Meril writes, “Corruption is a willful failure to perform a specified duty in order to receive some direct or indirect personal gain”[1]. Thus in corruption a person willfully neglects his specified duty in order to have undue advantage. In fact to call an act corruption, the following characteristics should be present namely, in corruption the specified duty is neglected, there is a willful negligence of the duty and have a personal gain. The prevention of corruption act which proposed in 1988 defines, “Corruption means and includes all corrupt activities notified by a body designed by the government from time to time”.
2.0 Combating corruption
In India a three pronged approach is advocated in combating corruption namely enactment and enforcement of a law against it, mobilization of public opinion against behavior, and the strict vigilance. Accordingly the Indian legal system came up with The Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) 1988, chapter 9 of our Indian Penal Code (IPC) states the measure for the violation of corruption by the citizen of the country, and it also state that any citizens found in this act is liable under criminal conduct under the judiciary. In chapter IX A under no.171-B of the Indian Penal Code, ‘Bribery’ is defined under offences relating to moral misconduct and criminal activity. Indian judiciary has introduced various commissions to check corruption namely, The Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).
The lokpal bill has along chequered history as it was first rooted in 1968 in terms of the recommendation of the administrative reforms commission. The introduction of The Right to Information Act (RTI) has given the right to citizens to force the government to lifts its veil of secrecy and ensure a corrupt-free system. In spite of this during Nehru era we had innumerable commissions of inquiry on corruption namely, The Railway Corruption Inquiry Committee under Acharya Kripalani (1953), The Vivian Bose Commission (1962), The Santhanam Committee on Prevention of Corruption (1964), The Wanchoo Committee on Black Money (1974). After these unsuccessful commissions hailed the campaign of Anna Hazare with his team of Santhosh Hedge, the retired Lokayukta of Karnataka, RTI activist Arvind Kejarwal, former Police officer Kiran Bedi and others came forward to mobilize young people to the cause and to gain the massive support to the Hazare movement they invited middle class and the young generation of the country to protest against corruption in the country.[2]
3.0 Anna Hazare`s Anti-Corruption Movement
I would be wrong if I say the fight against corruption began with this movement because the awareness had begun earlier but it was more hidden and less intense in action. With the nexus of the state with corporations, the poor losing more and more of their assets and the governing class increasing their wealth and publicly vulgarizing it, there was a pent up anger among the people of the country which the government underestimated. And this gradually turns into movement and these anti corruption movement had the following context for the movement namely,
About 15% of the 548 Lok