ANTI-CORRUPTION STAND Jan Lokpal and citizen inspectors
AAP’S Jan Lokpal Bill exposes major flaws with the Centre’s Lokpal Bill. Crucially, it provides for a time-bound investigation and trial of corruption cases. Kejriwal has threatened to resign if the Government does not pass the Bill. Though Delhi is a quasi-state, and requires the Central government’s approval before any bill is passed, Kejriwal has pointedly refused to send the Jan Lokpal Bill for ‘checking’.
From January-end, Kejriwal hit the airwaves, exhorting Delhi citizens not to refuse bribes to government officials. Instead, he encouraged them to take a secret recording on their mobile phones and send it to the party’s anti-corruption helpline. “Every citizen will now become like a police inspector,” Kejriwal announced on radio. Then on February 11, he asked that an FIR be registered against Union Oil Minister M. Veerappa Moily and Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani for illegally hiking the price of natural gas.
As AAP’s oldest and most resonant election plank, the party expected a big response to the anti-corruption drive from a new aspirational class, tired of having to grease palms to get ahead. The India Today Group-CVoter poll says 40 per cent of the middle class feel corruption is the single largest problem facing the country today. Kejriwal’s call was an instant hit. The helpline is particularly popular with shop owners and vendors who feel they are exploited by Delhi Police constables. The FIR against Ambani has also proved to be a masterstroke. “Many people have this notion that a certain industrial house is looting the country. He is the first person to directly take him on,” says a party leader.