Jantar Mantar Is Just A Sundial. Period

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Over the next two years, each time the man returned to Delhi for his fast-unto-death, dressed in his austere dhoti-kurta and Gandhi topi, the government was on its toes. Flanked by a motley group of disciples바카라�activists, lawyers, a former top cop, a yoga businessman바카라�and streamed live on television screens round-the-clock by news channels, the man at Jantar Mantar offered a miraculous solution바카라�Lokpal바카라�a panacea for India바카라�s crippling political and institutional rot. The stirrings of an inquilab or revolution were palpable; the man바카라�s lieutenants claimed they would free so-called autonomous institutions from political control.

For countless Indians who were mesmerised by the anti-corruption campaign, the movement also meant something of far greater significance. Activist Mayank Gandhi, who was part of the Lokpal movement in those turbulent days tells Outlook: 바카라�The aandolan struck a deeper chord바카라� we were tired of seeing constitutional bodies and so-called independent institutions compromised by those in power.바카라� Gandhi says the proposals of a public charter and to make politicians, bureaucrats and the judiciary all accountable to the Lokpal 바카라�flowed from a belief in the need for institutions that are truly autonomous and independent in practice and are answerable to the public and not the power elite.바카라�

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The Lokpal got legislative sanction on January 1, 2014, though with vastly reduced powers than were originally env­isaged. Five months later, the UPA government lost power. The Congress was red­uced to its lowest tally ever in the Lok Sabha and the BJP, led by Nar­endra Modi, stormed into office. The man at Jantar Mantar receded into the shadows, several of his lieutenants plunged into the very system they once claimed they would change, some of them were now enjoying the fruits of political power they once claimed to abhor.  

In 2019, after several nudges from the Supreme Court, the Lokpal actually became functional with former Supreme Court judge, Justice P.C. Ghose, becoming the country바카라�s first anti-graft ombudsman. The notion of a Lokpal ending corruption in public offices, however, proved highly illusory. According to official data, the Lokpal received just 95 complaints in 2020-2021, of which 66 were closed at various stages of preliminary investigation. The data from 2019-2020 is equally baffling: the Lokpal received a total of 1427 complaints of which 1218 were dismissed on grounds that they were beyond the ombudsman바카라�s jurisdiction; directions for act­ion were given only against 34 complaints. The miniscule number of anti-graft complaints is difficult to reconcile with India바카라�s performance on globally well regarded indices such as Transparency International바카라�s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). After a marginal improvement in its CPI ratings in the initial two years of Narendra Modi바카라�s government, India has consistently been slipping on the index since 2017, currently ranked 86th out of 180 countries.

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Meanwhile, the larger dream of the Lokpal movement바카라�true autonomy of institutions바카라�was quickly forgotten. Instead, institutions now appear to be under far greater strain than they were during the preceding years. Earlier this year, the Narendra Modi government tried to fend off criticism over India being downgraded in the US-based democracy watchdog Freedom House바카라�s Freedom in the World, 2020 report. India바카라�s ranking slipped from being a 바카라�free바카라� nation to a 바카라�partly free바카라� one on Modi바카라�s watch, but there were more causes for worry.  

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India performed poorly on parameters such as independence of the judiciary, extensive political indoctrination in the education system, safeguards against corruption and India바카라�s failure to uphold due process in civil and criminal matters. An excerpt on the independence of judiciary was particularly damning. 바카라�The score declined from 3 to 2 because the unusual appointment of a recently retired chief justice to the Upper House of Parliament, a pattern of more pro-government decisions by the Supreme Court, and the high-profile transfer of a judge after he ruled against the government바카라�s political interests all suggested a closer alignment between the judicial leadership and the ruling party,바카라� the report said.  

The view that the judiciary, particularly apex, has bec­ome committed to the cause of the government, and not justice, has been debated often. In an interview to Outlook earlier this year, retired Supreme Court judge Justice Deepak Gupta had candidly admitted that 바카라�one does feel that a perception is building up that the court does more to favour the government than the public at large.바카라� From the infamous judges바카라� press conference of January 2017 onwards, the ominous import of this notion has been that successive chief justices of India, other judges and their judgments often get viewed with suspicion of political complicity. Similarly, decisive and timely interventions by the judiciary, as seen in recent weeks in the Covid pandemic management  and inoculation-related cases, get applauded as exceptions when they should be welcomed without riders.

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A double whammy for the judiciary also comes from the perception that judges in its higher echelons are appointed not purely on merit but also on political considerations. Justice Gupta says, 바카라�If you are a very independent-minded judge in the high court and are not soft towards the government, the government will thwart your elevation as CJ or as judge of the SC.바카라� There have been several past instances that attest to this fact, most notably that of the Centre바카라�s resistance to elevating Tripura high court chief justice, Justice Akil Kureshi, to the SC. The SC, which has a sanctioned bench strength of 34 judges, currently has seven vacancies.

That the Modi government is 바카라�destroying the framework of all institutions that hold up a democracy, including the media and the judiciary바카라� has been Congress leader Rahul Gandhi바카라�s most relentless criticism of the ruling dispensation. This criticism has been equally applicable to past Congress regimes in varying degrees. Successive Congress governments were culpable of trying to influence the media and investigation agencies바카라�the SC바카라�s 바카라�caged parrot바카라� appellation was coined for the CBI in 2013 during the UPA era바카라� and of packing various national commissions and academia with ideological fellow-travellers. Yet, the taint of institutional capture, or institutional collapse as some call it, sticks strongly on the Modi regime. 바카라�Can you name any constitutional body or autonomous institution that isn바카라�t acting like an extension of the government today,바카라� asks Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh. Old allegations of swift erosion in the credibility of law enforcement agencies such as the NIA, CBI, ED and DRI among others have returned like the more virulent second wave of Covid; made believable by the prompt targeting, arrests and incarceration of anyone who espouses politics and ideology that differ from the BJP바카라�s. Public intellectuals in the Bhima Koregaon case, students of JNU, Aligarh and Jamia Millia universities, student-activists in the anti-CAA protest and Northeast Delhi riots cases and prominent politicians like P. Chidambaram and D.K. Shivakumar바카라�examples are aplenty. The most discredited of these agencies바카라�the CBI바카라�witnessed high drama between October 2018 and January 2019 when the Centre sent then CBI director Alok Verma, who was reportedly planning to open a probe into the Rafale jet deal, on leave and then sacked him.

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Other institutions such as the CAG, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the Central Information Commission (CIC), which were regularly in the news for their criticism of the UPA regime, are rarely heard of now. 바카라�A major cause for the UPA바카라�s loss of credibility among the people was the embarrassing reports and missives that came from institutions like the CAG, CVC etc. Then CAG (Vinod Rai) had become a household name, his reports forced several Union ministers to resign바카라� today no one knows who the CAG is or what he is doing,바카라� says former law minister Veerappa Moily. The last time that a CAG report created some public interest was arguably the audit of the controversial Rafale jet deal바카라�not for the revelations but for those it concealed. 바카라�The CAG바카라�s Rafale audit rep­ort was placed before the Supreme Court after redacting prices... have you ever heard of an audit that doesn바카라�t declare the price of the commodity being audited,바카라� asks the former law minister. Institutions of learning like JNU and Jamia, among India바카라�s top universities despite a vicious smear campaign, are under siege too. Activist and a JNU alumnus, Sohail Hashmi, says: 바카라�Recurring instances of campus unrest across the country, attacks on students by BJP goons, foisting of sedition cases against student activists and appointment of pliant and compromised vice chancellors to various universities prove this.바카라�

The people바카라�s expectations from that dharna at Jantar Mantar a decade ago were clearly misplaced. The resounding electoral verdict that their outrage caused seven years ago바카라�and its amplified version two years back바카라�too failed in stemming India바카라�s institutional rot; arguably it바카라�s worse off today. Jantar Mantar, meanwhile, is quiet and so is the man who screamed Inquilab Zindabad from the stage there 10 years ago. 

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