The Lokpal Idea, 1963-2010, Vol. I

Among the innumerable solutions proposed to combat corruption and maladministration in India was the institution of the lokpal. Its story began around 1963 and continued through the heady days of the Anna Hazare campaign to produce a flawed result passed by Parliament in 2013. But what is the lokpal. Like so many concepts of governance, it is an institution to root out maladministration and corruption. Bureaucrats hated it and sought to wriggle out of its jurisdiction. Politicians had no choice but to broadly accept it, But were wary of its implications for ministers and legislators. Political parties saw in it an opportunity to examine the past five years of the previous past regimes as an incidence of ‘regime revenge’. the lokpal idea, 1963-2010, critically examines debates, documents, ideas, and material to show how the idea of lokpal was moulded and remoulded to suit politicians and Civil servants and others, and asks: are remedial institutions like the lokpal the real answer. Can the lokpal be seen as an artefact of governance, or is it a mere plaything in the hands of ruling dispensations.