Suffering does not stop until we get to the Truth

A patient has fever, headache, fatigue, indigestion, and some other symptoms. Doctor starts treating them one after the other. Will the patient's suffering stop? It won't, until the doctor discovers the ultimate truth that is causing all these symptoms and addresses it. It could be cancer or it could be something else. Same goes for everything else. Suffering of the world will not stop until the ultimate truth is known. World becomes a better place as more and more truths are discovered and inventions are developed based on these truths. But the suffering still does not stop until the ultimate truth is discovered and addressed.

While, this being the case, imagine the foolishness of people who live in falsehood, let alone discover new truths. No one can save them from suffering. They will continue to move from one disaster to another, avoiding one at a time, by cheating, lying, working around the problem. It is never a good idea to associate with such people either, because they will need and rope-in whomever they can to support them to live in the virtual life of lies and deception.

Suffering indeed does not stop until we get to the Truth. - Vishnu Pendyala

Lokpal: Another View

First there was a single ruler (monarchy). Then we split the governance into the executive, parliament, and judiciary. Now we are adding Lokpal. What is the guarantee that Lokpal will be adequate? Frankly, we don't need more government and pay more taxes for it. We need a real government - one which is for the people. We have laws and the infrastructure to make those laws work to ensure checks and balances. Just that they need to work as conceived.

As many luminaries would agree, RTI is one of finest pieces of legislation passed by the Indian  Parliament. The CIC was expected to bring great amount of accountability on part of the government. But has that happened? People are scared to file RTIs for fear of retaliation and petitions are simply piling up in the CIC's office. I personally know of an RTI application made to the Chief Secretary of the State Government requesting to know what action was taken on a letter from the Prime Minister's Office to them, where even the enclosed demand draft was not cashed, speed post receipt confirmation not withstanding. I heard that it is a serious lapse if the fee paid is not cashed, but who would dare to complain against the Chief Secretary? These RTI applicants are already vulnerable and typically apply in despair, so wouldn't even dare to file an appeal. What is the guarantee that Lokpal will not go this route?

 Judiciary was envisaged to punish the corrupt and check the misuse of power. But look at what happened in the cases of S.P.S. Rathore and J Jayalalithaa! How about N Chandrababu Naidu and Nandamuri Balakrishna's cases? Or even the case of the former CJI, Sri KG Balakrishnan? I may not have chosen the most compelling cases, but you get the picture. So, do we really need a Lokpal funded with tax-payers' money in addition to the Honorable Judiciary?

To look at it more positively, we have seen quite many instances in the recent past where even Union Ministers, who were involved in scams were sent to jail by the Judiciary. So, judiciary can be powerful enough to contain corruption, but it seems to need certain circumstances to do so. What were these circumstances in the recent past? Public outcry, wary eyes of the citizens, and an awakened nation.

If we think these circumstances cannot stay for ever, we should capture them in form of stronger laws to stay: Bring better accountability to all wings of the government; Empower the people to get answers from the Honorable Judiciary even with a hand-written letter (currently there is a rule which can force public to come only through a lawyer); Strengthen the RTI law; Remove retaliatory provisions (contempt is an example) of the statute; Remove protectionist laws and procedures that the corrupt are taking cover under; Legislate attaching properties of the corrupt and make them repay illegal assets with a 25% interest penality; Provide protection to the questioning public. These are some of the things that the current activism should bargain for, rather than ask for another governing monster called Lokpal to deal with.