By Firoz.T.Totanawala
The Bangalore Metro Reporter
THE REAL CRUSADER!
FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION: ANNA HAZARE V/S SUBRAMANIAM SWAMY
Janata Party leader Subramaniam Swamy has scored a major victory in his fight against corruption. Without resorting to public agitations, threats etc. for a special law to fight corruption, Subramaniam Swamy has shown that the fight against corruption can be fought more effectively through the existing laws of the land. In contrast, Anna Hazare, the so called Gandhian who advocates slapping of corrupt and beating of people who drink alcohol, wants only his version of Jan Lokpal Bill to fight corruption.
The Supreme Court, the other day delivered a landmark judgment which will have far reaching effects by upholding the rights of the citizens to prosecute corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. The SC delivered the historic judgment on Subramaniam Swamy’s petition seeking permission to prosecute A.Raja in the 2G Spectrum Scam. It clearly stated that corrupt bureaucrats can be prosecuted without waiting for sanction from the appropriate authority. The SC also directed the Indian government to enact a law that makes it mandatory for the government to decide the permission to prosecute a corrupt public servant by a citizen within months. If the government does not act within three months and at the maximum four months, the SC made it clear that this will be treated as ‘deemed permission’.
The SC judgment has provided a new dimension to the fight against corruption. What the Lokpal movement could not achieve despite agitations, fasts, threats, blackmail etc. by Anna Hazare Team, the SC judgment achieved it and went a step further to arm the citizens with a right to prosecute corrupt public servants including politicians and bureaucrats. The time limits of three months set by the SC and the threat of ‘deemed permission’ will automatically make the government sensitive and responsive to people’s complaint against public servants.
Swamy has to be congratulated for having persisted with his fight against corruption. In fact, when he petitioned the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh two years back for permission to prosecute the then Telecom Minister A.Raja alleging huge scams, he was not taken seriously. It should be recalled that it was Swamy who exposed the scam in 2-G Spectrum, even before the CAG started looking into the matter.
When the PMO did not act on his petition, Swamy approached the High Court to seek Prime Minister’s permission to sanction his petition to prosecute the Telecom Minister. But, the High Court simply dismissed his petition. Swamy however persisted and went to Supreme Court challenging the HC Order.
Only when the CAG in its report estimated the loss to the government at 1.76 lakh crores rupees in the 2-G Spectrum allotment business, the politicians took notice. The CBI was awarded the probe and many VIP politicians including the then Telecom Minister Raja and others were jailed. Some people like DMK Boss M.Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi is on bail after spending a couple of months in jail.
Subramaniam Swamy continued his fight and finally, the Supreme Court delivered a historic and landmark judgment allowing Swamy’s plea and directed the government to act upon his petition to prosecute Raja and others in 2-G Spectrum scam giving three months to decide the matter. The SC’s observation that every citizen has a right to fight graft and prosecute public servants and that there is no need for permission to file criminal complaints against public servants, has become the catalyst to fight against corruption. And Swamy has proved that graft can be fought effectively with the existing law.
Let us compare Subramaniam Swamy’s fight against corruption with the so called crusade of Anna Hazare’s “India Against Corruption”. Anna who claims himself a Gandhian, encourages physical violence to fight corruption and alcoholism. He feels that the law of the land is not effective to fight corruption and wants the Jan Lokpal Bill as prepared by his followers to be adopted by the parliament and enforced within a stipulated time. Team Anna is intolerant of any opposition or criticism of their Jan Lokpal Bill.
On the contrary, the Team Anna which is fighting against corruption has mobilised crores through donations from corporate houses like Reliance etc. which are involved in 2-G Spectrum scam. This makes one wonder whether the Anna Team’s fight against corruption is a sponsored movement by vested interests with ulterior motives.
Swamy’s relentless legal fight against corruption has borne fruit which helped the entire society. Swamy, a politician himself has fought corruption legally, and the Anna Team which proclaims that it is non-political, is waging a political battle against Congress, on the pretext of fighting corruption! This itself speaks volumes about the entire episode.
Whatsoever, the country should be grateful to Subramaniam Swamy for having succeeded in providing legal sanctity to the fight against corruption.
And that is all.
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