अब उन राज्यों का दौरा करेगी टीम अन्ना जहां होने हैं चुनाव

आईबीएन-7

रालेगन सिद्धि। अन्ना के गांव रालेगन सिद्धि में हुई दो दिन की बैठक में तय किया गया है कि अगले दो ढाई महीने के भीतर अन्ना हजारे खासकर ऐसे राज्यों की यात्रा करेंगे जहां विधानसभा चुनाव होने हैं।

दरअसल टीम अन्ना अब सरकार से आर या पार की लड़ाई के मूड में है। संसद के शीतकालीन सत्र से पहले टीम अन्ना स्टैंडिंग कमेटी के सभी सदस्यों और राजनीतिक दलों के बड़े नेताओं के चुनाव क्षेत्रों में राय शुमारी करवाएगी। जिसमें जनता से ये सवाल पूछा जाएगा कि क्या वो उस उम्मीदवार को वोट देंगे जो जनलोकपाल बिल का विरोध कर रहा है।

साथ ही अन्ना ने अपनी टीम के साथ उन सभी राज्यों के दौरे पर जाने का फैसला किया है जहां आने वाले महीनों में चुनाव होने हैं। टीम अन्ना के मुताबिक यात्रा के दौरान लोगों को ये बताया जाएगा कि किस राजनीतिक दल का जनलोकपाल बिल पर क्या रुख है।

सरकार से उसके काम-काज में पारदर्शिता की मांग करने वाली टीम अन्ना ने खुद भी पारदर्शी दिखने का फैसला किया है। इसके तहत 1 अप्रैल से 30 सितंबर तक आंदोलन के दौरान हुए खर्चे का विशेष ऑडिट करवाने का फैसला लिया गया है। साथ ही कोर कमेटी के सभी सदस्य 15 अक्टूबर तक अपनी संपत्ति का ब्यौरा इंडिया अगेन्स करप्शन की बेवसाइट पर डाल देंगे। अगर टीम अन्ना के खिलाफ आम आदमी को किसी तरह की शिकायत है तो उसकी जांच तीन रिटायर्ड जजों की कमेटी करेगी।

इसी के साथ टीम अन्ना की दो दिनों की बैठक खत्म हो गई। शनिवार को अन्ना हजारे ने फैसला किया था कि वो राइट टू रिकॉल के मसले पर पीएम को पत्र लिखकर उनकी राय मांगेंगे। जाहिर है अन्ना हजारे ने रामलीला से अपना अनशन खत्म करने के वक्त अगली लड़ाई का बिगुल फूंकते हुए राइट टू रिकॉल को आंदोलन का अगला हथियार बनाने की घोषणा की थी।

जनदबाव से विवश हुई सरकार

पटना (एसएनबी)। अन्ना हजारे के आंदोलन को समर्थन देने के लिए इंडिया एगेंस्ट क्रप्शन के पदाधिकारी अरुण दास ने कहा कि अटल जनदबाव के चलते ही जनलोकपाल बिल के प्रमुख मुद्दों को पारित करने के लिए संसद को मजबूर होना पड़ा। अनशन के समर्थन में राज्य के कई लोगों ने अनिश्चित कालीन और क्रमिक उपवास रखा। छपरा के मनोहर तिवारी, उमेश सिंह मुनि, रवीन्द्र सिंह और कवि जी और पटना में टी. उपेन्द्र और अरुण दास ने 16 अगस्त से 28 अगस्त तक लगातार अनशन पर थे। वहीं देवचंद्र मंडल, धीरज कुमार नायक, गौतम कुमार और सीताराम पटियाला ने भी विभिन्न समयावधि के लिए उपवास रखा।उन्होंने कहा कि अन्ना के अनशन टूटते ही सरकार की ओर से अन्ना टीम के सदस्यों पर कार्यपालिका और विधायिका की तरफ से आत्मघाती कुठाराघात होने लगे हैं। टीम अन्ना के सदस्यों को फंसाने की साजिश कर रही है। इंडिया एगेंस्ट क्रप्शन 15 सितम्बर को राज्य के सभी जिलों में जाकर कार्यकर्ता प्रशिक्षण शिविर लगाएगी। प्रतिनिधि वापसी का अधिकार और चुनाव में किसी को भी नहीं चुनने का अधिकार के लिए आवश्यक कदम उठाएगी। इस मौके पर राजेन्द्र पासवान, निर्मल चंद्र, पंकज भूषण, अरविंद कुमार, डॉ एएन सिंह, चंद्र भूषण, सूर्यदेव यादव, इकबाल इमाम और प्रकाश बबलू सहित अन्य लोग मौजूद थे।

For Team Anna: Five lessons from California about direct democracy

Sep 7, 2011, http://www.firstpost.com/ideas/look-before-you-leap-team-anna-five-lessons-from-california-about-direct-democracy-77461.html

The next stop for the Anna Hazare express: Electoral reforms. Reject and Recall has a nice “throw the bums out” ring to it, that’s just in keeping with the post-Ramlila we-the-people mood prevailing in the country these days.

Just listen to this:

The opponents of direct legislation and the recall, however they may phrase their opposition, in reality believe the people cannot be trusted. On the other hand, those of us who espouse these measures do so because of our deep-rooted belief in popular government, and not only in the right of the people to govern, but in their ability to govern; and this leads us logically to the belief that if the people have the right, the ability, and the intelligence to elect, they have as well the right, ability, and intelligence to reject or to recall.

Sounds like Team Anna?  Except this is Hiram Johnson, California’s governor, addressing his citizens in 1911. Johnson gave California its great experiment with direct democracy. California has embraced it with gusto.

It’s recalled Gov. Gray Davis and installed Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It’s mandated that 2/3 of the legislature must approve tax hikes which basically means no tax hikes.

It’s put pretty much every contentious issue – affirmative action, same-sex marriage, marijuana – directly to the voters. And along the way a lot of bizarre ones as well – a ban on circumcision, rules for chiropractors, greyhound dog racing.

Now one hundred years after Hiram Johnson, California is broke, perpetually lurching from election to mid-term election to special election and issuing IOUs to its employees and vendors.

Direct democracy sounds like a great idea. It eliminates the middleman and lets the little guy tell the politicians what to do. “People like us will finally get a say in where our country is headed,” we think. It’s quick. It’s easy. It’s clean.

The only problem is democracy is not a packet of instant noodles. You can’t just add a cup of boiling anger and have it ready to serve in three minutes. The package looks great. But let’s look at the fine print before the slippery slope of direct democracy turns us into another California.

Ballot box budgeting. This sounds like a super idea. Instead of letting those politicians siphon off our money, how about we tell them exactly where we want it spent? Direct democracy does just that by setting aside money for issues that voters care about. But as more and more of the budget is locked away, there’s less and less money to go round for the rest of the government’s business –salaries, roads, police, firefighters. By some estimates 65-85% of California’s budget has been tied up through ballot measures, 40% towards education alone. “The irony is that the more the hands of the Legislature and governor are tied up, the more frustrated people are,” says Tim Hodson, director of the Center for California Studies at Cal State Sacramento.

The voter tends to look at the big headlines on TV, not the big picture. Reuters

Goodbye special interests. Not exactly. It takes a lot of money to keep the people’s democracy going. To get a referendum on the ballot, to collect signatures doesn’t just happen over Twitter and Facebook. It needs money. And guess who has the money? The same fat cats who once co-opted the politicians. So in 2006 LA real estate mogul Steve Bing pumped $50 million into his pet proposition to raise taxes on oil producers. The Mormon Church funneled millions of dollars into a campaign to ban same-sex marriages in California. In 2004 supporters spent $16.9 million just to qualify a proposition on non-tribal gambling expansion for the ballot. So much for the little guy setting the agenda by embarking on a fast.

Transparency and stability. Direct democracy is supposed to settle issues with the definitive bang of “the people have spoken.” Politicians can’t pretend they know what the voter wants and just push their own agenda. But it doesn’t quite work out that way. Every election settles an issue in California. Until the next election. If a referendum on affirmative action fails at the ballot one year, its backers immediately start plotting for the next go-around. Same sex marriage, gay rights, abortion rights  have all been going through a see-saw battle in the polls for years now. It creates, writes Troy Senik “a state of permanent revolution in California politics.” Not to mention a state of permanent elections.

Voter knows best. As the old song goes: Yeh public hai, sab jaanti hai. (This is the public, it knows everything).  Even, it seems, the fine print of the Indo-US nuclear deal. Prashant Bhushan recently stumped for referendums saying “It is wrong to say people do not understand these issues. There could have been a referendum for an issue like the Indo-US nuclear deal.”  Sorry, Mr. Bhushan, the individual just doesn’t know enough. Not even about your  Jan Lokpal bill. The voter tends to look at the big headlines on TV, not the big picture. Voters are fickle, they often contradict themselves. Poll after poll in California shows they oppose cutbacks in most of the big categories of spending like healthcare and education. But they don’t want a tax hike either. As Nathan Gardeis, an advisor to the Think Long Committee for California told the Economist, California has become a “diet-Coke civilisation of consumer democracy, of services without taxes, like sweetness without calories, of rights without duties”.

Recall is all about people power. They might give the people muscle. But they emasculate the legislature. That might not sound so bad but it means they will just pass the buck on tough decisions. Why take a tough stand if that could trigger a recall? Recalls sound like a good kick-in-the-butt kind of democracy in action. But just two cautionary words – Arnold Schwarzenegger.  He was the action hero of “people power” knocking out Gray Davis who had just been re-elected. It wasn’t exactly the grassroots revolution it’s made out to be. A Republican congressman actually poured $1.7 million of his car alarm fortune into it.  That election cost California $66 million. And as the success story of people power, it didn’t quite have a Hollywood ending.

In his last year in office, Schwarzenegger managed to garner the lowest job rating of any sitting governor in more than 50 years. His disapproval rating ended up around 75%, worse than the governor he ousted.

His fall from grace is in its way a textbook story about the promise and peril of direct democracy. Team Anna would do well to study it.

Be careful what you wish for. Sometimes you might just get it.

Team Anna to take up fight against bad roads

Linah Baliga | Sep 4, 2011, 

MUMBAI: All those who thought that the India against Corruption (IAC) campaign will sink into oblivion after activist Anna Hazare broke his fast, think again. Come Tuesday, two major campaigns will be flagged off by Team Anna in Mumbai to ensure accountability of agencies that come in contact with citizen's everyday lives.
For starters, IAC plans to take up the long pending and unresolved issue of bad roads. "Bad roads s affect everybody and it remain an unresolved issue. The menace affects the poor, the rich and the middle-class alike right from Amitabh Bachchan to a slum-dweller. Hence, we decided to take it up,"said Piyush Bhatia, co-ordinator, IAC, Mumbai.
Citizens who had participated in anti-corruption rallies and took initiative in the IAC events will function as 'local pressure groups'. So far, 12 zonal groups have been formed for 24 administrative wards in the city. These will identify the worst stretches in their respective areas.
"They will file an RTI plea, seeking details on specifications, contractor's name, budget allocated, warranty period, quality of material used, the sample test report, etc. They will get samples tested from a laboratory. Once the report is in, mediapersons, contractors, BMC officials and citizens will discuss the issue and find out if there are lacunae in the work carried out by the BMC," said Bhatia.
The second campaign will have 12 zonal groups going to local zonal offices like ration card offices, RTOs and police stations. Around 200-500 volunteers will go in groups and they will meet the seniormost officers at the ration card office and ask them to sign a declaration saying that "I and my office staff will not indulge in corruption, nor ask for bribes".
"In case they refuse, our volunteers will persist. We will have a list of government officers who have refused to sign the declaration. We will submit that to the chief minister," said Bhatia. Asked how signing a declaration would ensure that officers won't ask for bribes, he said, "This is an assertive approach. But
At least they will know people are keeping a watch and they are accountable to local citizens. There are 1 lakh stickers saying, 'Corruption Prohibited, Brashtachar Nishedh'. Our volunteers will go with the declaration and put up these stickers in government offices."
On Tuesday, IAC will flag off the campaign at ration card offices, followed by Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA and Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) on Thursday and civic ward offices on Friday.