I think lokpal is a political personality and is a part of the institution of people’s representatives. In India, the politicians namely the MPs, the MLAs, the councilors, the panchayat members, etc, are people’s representatives. The judges are not people’s representatives, nor are the bureaucrats, and nor are the forces. An ombudsman is also undoubtedly a people’s representative looking after the grievance of people against their government; the grievance necessarily includes corruption complaints and extends to complaints against human rights violation in general. Thus, he can obviously not be selected and appointed by the government. He should ideally be elected with the right to recall, though may not be by the people directly, but through contextually relevant sections of society. Yes, it may not be universal adult franchise; rather, if a lokpal is to be appointed for grievances with respect to senior school education, the senior school students instead of their parents may have a say in the election of the Lokpal.
So, now since a lokpal has to be a people’s representative, he can well be a super power but only contextually; for example the Lokpal looking after the senior school education may not only be able to receive and inquire into the complaints against the incompetent teachers but may also be able to pass orders recommending dismissal of the teachers and/or to commit them to prosecution and/or to impose fine, but, then, he can’t receive complaints against the bureaucrats working in the secretariat; for that would be required another/other lokpal/s having the requisite qualifications. Of course, a lokpal has to come from the civil society and can’t be a politician. “Separation of Power”, “Independence of Judiciary”, etc, will not be disturbed if lokpal is not considered part of the Executive or the Judiciary or the Legislature but a forth pillar — well the media will become the fifth pillar. The relevant constitutional changes are, of course, necessary.
The historical Anna Hazaare movement (historical because it’s the best example of the masses’ stupidity) suffered from the following fundamental problems:
1. Under the “Jan Lokpal Bill”, the selection and appointment of a lokpal was by the politicians and the government. Instead of the referendum, they should have thought of elections for the different categories of lokpals by the concerned stakeholders with the right to recall and could have also laid down the pre-qualifications for the candidates and could have also defined the electorate. Then, they could have made him a super power as they did in the “Jan Lokpal Bill.”
2. There was no procedural clarity, and the focus was too much on legal knowledge. They should have detailed out government functions at various levels in various organizations and institutions and then provided for the offices of lokpals for various functions in various organizations and institutions, etc. Instead of drafting the bill, factor analysis, a statistical concept, should have been used and a research paper/concept should have been produced delineating the offices in the order of priority, wherein the Lokpals need to be appointed. Thereafter, in the first stage, the Lokpals could have been elected by the concerned stakeholders for the most important offices.
3. Most importantly, an ombudsman is just not a check on corruption: he is a trustee of people against the high-handedness of the government and its functionaries (including the private persons like the corporations); and, I think, the violation of the human rights is the biggest grievance that the people have against the government and its functionaries (without prejudice to the observation of the Supreme Court that corruption is the biggest violator of human rights).
So, lokpal is indeed a very important political entity but distinct from the politicians; rather arising from the strong felt need of the people to fill the vacuum left by the fake trustees of the people, i.e. the politicians, and from the need to fill the vacuum left by the failure of the constitutional norm of “Separation of Power” to instill trust in the people — I don’t mind calling lokpal by some other sexy name.
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