Tahrir square in India

Third day of Anna Hazare's fast is over and we have more than a million supporters. It's almost looking like a nation is now waking up for a good cause and forcing the government to take action against the corrupt people. People from all the states are unhappy and all want the government to implement the jan lokpal bill. This is the first time I am seeing people across the nation getting united against a good cause. Till now we only used to cheer about India and care about India during cricket matches. But today, we are seeing a different India, young Indians all over the place to support IAC (India Against Corruption). Hundreds and Thousands of supporters from all over the world are following IAC's twitter account and facebook pages. India is changing for sure.

When the government kept neglecting the lokpal bill for 42 years (UPA, NDA..all govts), how can we expect the government to tackle corruption effectively? It is clear that they themselves don't want such laws in place. So, the only option left with the people of India was to go on a protest and which is what their democratic right is.

Now let's come to a question which says that should civil society members be allowed to be a part of a committee to draft a bill? Well some people say that as per the rules, civil society can only give recommendations to the elected representatives, but eventually it's the elected representatives who has to form the bill. I feel we are seeing too much into the rules and forgetting the principle - the basic principle is that the power should be in the right hands, for the good of the people. However today we have a situation where no one has faith in the elected representatives as everyone knows that these politicians have been sitting on the lokpal bill for 42 years, creating a mockery of democracy and looting the country.

Long story short, only the elected representatives have the power to form a bill because those are the people who have been elected by the people, so ideally those are the best people to have the power to draft a bill. But in this case we cannot trust them at all because this bill is all about nailing the elected representatives if they falter at any stage, and obviously we can't expect them to draft a strong anti-corruption (read anti politicians) bill. So I think government has to make an exception in this case and form a joint committee, headed by a civil society member, which will draft a strong, ruthless lokpal bill.

I don't see a Tahrir square in India, as I still have faith in our democracy, so let's hope for the best and let's hope that the government forms up a joint committee and the committee drafts a strong anti-corruption lokpal bill.