Anna Hazare had no role to play in UP elections: Hegde

Key Team Anna member Justice N Santosh Hegde admitted today corruption and governance issues did not determine the outcome of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections but said the anti-graft sentiment certainly worked in Goa.
Asked if Team Anna's campaign in Uttar Pradesh had an impact on polls, Hegde said: "There is no evidence to that effect. If corruption was an issue, I don't think SP (Samajwadi party) would have got such a huge margin".

A former Supreme Court Judge, he expressed the view that "governance does not seem to be an issue at all (in Uttar Pradesh", indicating that the Mulayam Singh Yadav won the polls for reasons other than issues of corruption and governance.

"They (people) have seen SP for ten years. SP never gave a good government", he said, also referring to media reports of some "law and order problems" immediately after SP swept to power.

But he asserted that anti-corruption mood certainly worked in Goa, where BJP won the polls, adding, the outgoing Congress government had allegedly indulged in "heavy corruption".
In addition, BJP played its card very well by giving tickets to different communities.

Hegde, however, said the Team Anna movement would gather momentum going forward. "Anna (Hazare) has decided to to tour all over India". Even though there are no elections round the corner, it would certainly have a tremendous effect on governing parties,he said.

"But for the Anna movement, corruption would not have been that big an issue. Peoples' reaction to Anna's movement had a significant effect on public mind", the former Karnataka Lokayukta said.

He said the issue (fight against) of corruption –whether through Anna or general perception -- has gained a lot of support and "it has harmed many people who are presumed to be corrupt".

Hegde expressed the view that if B C Khanduri was not projected
as chief ministerial candidate,BJP would have been "wiped out" in Uttarkhand. BJP made a "tactical error" by not replacing his predecessor Ramesh Pokhriyal, who was perceived as "very, very corrupt", much earlier

Sandalwood’s very own Anna Hazare

He is known for attempting something unique in each of his films - be it his clothes, dialogues, titles, posters or screenplays.

And now, Real Star Upendra has another ace up his sleeve. In his upcoming film Aarakshaka, Upendra has penned an entire song as a tirade against corruption. In the track, which is titled Thoo Nan Makla and sung by Kailash Kher, the actor mocks politicians and the aam janta for indulging in corrupt practices.

"While I always try to relay a message through my films, I was glad that there was a situation in Aarakshaka that demanded a song of this kind. I play a cop in the film, but even before I officially become one, I behave like a cop and start helping people in their quest for justice. That is where we have inserted this number," reveals the actor. Uppi says that the track was inspired by his role model Anna Hazare. "I've asked people to take inspiration from this 70-year-old man who has taken up this challenge, while we have just been mute spectators all this while," he explains.

But this isn't the first time that Uppi has aired his views on corruption. Uppi has made fun of politicians and bigwigs for their unethical ways even in his previous flicks like Super and Raktha Kanneeru. "I'm aware of my responsibilities and know that I have a platform from where I can mould public opinion. Besides, I also practise what I preach. During the Anna Hazare movement, I met former Lokayukta judge Santosh Hegde and pledged my support against corruption and discussed various ways to curb it," says Uppi.

Anna welcomes govt's move to release Lokpal tapes

New Delhi: Anna Hazare has welcomed the government's sudden change of heart in the face of an RTI query on making public the audio recordings of the Jan Lokpal Bill drafting committee meetings. Anna said this leads to greater transparency and that is something that would restore the people's faith in the government.

But sources say the disclosure of the committee proceedings will be selective and that nothing which would hamper the government's work in drafting the Lokpal Bill or which embarrasses the government will be disclosed.

After more than half a dozen meetings and a series of backroom talks, the government and Team Anna failed to arrive at a consensus on the Lokpal Bill, leading to the confrontation and Anna's fast at Ramlila Maidan. Nearly a month after Parliament finally resolved to enact an effective Lokpal, the real points of contentions between Team Anna and the government could now be out in the public domain with the government agreeing to make audio recordings of the Lokpal joint drafting committee public.

Sources say elements not impinging on the jurisdiction or working of the Parliamentary Standing Committee currently scrutinising the bill will be made available. Earlier the Department of Personnel and Training had sought opinion of the Law Ministry to make public the records of the closed door meetings between the five member Anna Hazare team with government nominees.

"Whatever is allowed and necessary under the RTI will be allowed," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.

However, former Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde said, "My only problem is that if they edit it or if they do it in the manner not in the larger interest of the conversation that took place between the two groups, then it will create some controversy."

Anna Hazare and his team have already upped the ante by campaigning against the Congress in the Hisar by-polls and they are preparing to take the battle to other state elections if the bill is not passed in the winter session of Parliament.

Hegde-Kumaraswamy fight gets personal

The heat of the Anna Hazare anti-corruption agitation has had a collateral effect in Karnataka with former Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde and former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy letting out some steam on each other’s private lives.

Kumaraswamy and Hegde, who was appointed as the Lokayukta by the former’s government, have bust any existing myths about their coziness by engaging in a war of words over the past few days.

It all started in the television studio of a Kannada channel on day 11 of Hazare’s fast for the Jan Lokpal Bill when Kumaraswamy, 51, was being grilled about the corrupt nature of politicians in general. Not one to mince his words, the former chief minister argued that it was not right to paint all politicians as scum. He suggested everyone has their grey zone and made a reference to a “lavish night life’’ enjoyed by a much revered person like the 71-year-old former Lokayukta himself.

“How much Hegde spends on his night life, who pays for it, can someone pay for such things from one’s salary? Will he give an account of it?’’ Kumaraswamy asked on the Target show aired on Suvarna TV on August 26.

The comment went viral and Justice Hegde, the primary face of the anti-corruption agitation at Bangalore’s Freedom Park, struck back the next day.

“A former chief minister is asking how Santosh Hegde gets the money to party every night. Santosh Hegde has had only one wife for 42 years. I have no second home and no other bad habits. Those asking these questions should first examine themselves,’’ said Justice Hegde in his repartee.

“Santosh Hegde goes directly from the Freedom Park to his home. He does not go house to house,’’ said Hegde, who was a part of the joint drafting committee for the anti-corruption Bill.

The former judge’s comments triggered another reaction from H D Kumaraswamy, whom Hegde has named for impropriety in his July 27 report on illegal mining, even as senior JDS leaders like Kumaraswamy’s father the former PM H D Deve Gowda tried to apologise to Hegde.

Kumaraswamy threatened to substantiate his claims and expose Hegde with full documents.

“There is no question of expressing regret. I am committed to what I said. I will expose Justice Hegde. I am prepared to furnish documentary proof within a few days. I am also prepared to participate in a debate with Justice Hegde. If he is ready we can both share our views in front of the people,’’ he said.

On Sunday, when Hazare broke his fast Justice Hegde refused to sully Freedom Park with any references to his battle with Kumaraswamy. “Kumaraswamy appears to be unhappy with me because... his name has been mentioned in the illegal mining report,” Justice Hegde however reasoned at another event.

However, with heat dissipated from the anti-corruption stir, Hegde and Kumaraswamy too seem to have softened their stand on each other.

'Anti-graft movement to create better climate for American investments'

American business leaders are hopeful that the anti-corruption protest in India led by activist Anna Hazare would not sidetrack burgeoning economic ties between the two countries, but would, in the long term create a better climate for American investment.

The Hazare-led campaign has got wide publicity in the US media. With the US dealing with the recent downgrade of its government’s credit rating by Standard & Poor’s, steep sell-offs in the stock market and the possibility of double-dip recession (as cautioned by investment bank Morgan Stanley in its latest report), and turmoil in the euro zone, trade with India is seen as one of the bright spots.


Bilateral trade was $25 billion five years earlier and has since doubled. The Washington DC-based US-India Business Council, or USIBC, expects the figure to touch a new high this year, helped by India’s $4-bn order for Boeing’s C-17 military cargo aircraft.
The USIBC is keen to reassure American businesses that India remains a desirable destination and source for investment in the midst of nationwide anti-corruption protests and the series of corruption scandals over the past several months. Says USIBC president Ron Somers, “What we don’t want to do is tarbrush India in a larger South Asian context and discourage investment…the last thing we want is any hesitation among Indian and US businessmen.”

BRIGHTER SIDE
More so, says Somers, because the developments in India in fact demonstrate that “systems up and down the polity are insisting on better governance”, and adds that more transparency and predictability would be good for businesses in both countries.

Raghuram Rajan, a former chief economist at the IMF and currently the Eric J Gleacher Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago, says the protests in India, while these may be disruptive in the short term, would create a better investment climate in the long run. One, where “good business trumps over crooked business”. He urges attention to both positive and negative aspects, that while major corruption had taken place, the system was also responsible for sending ministers to jail.

“People were put behind bars. That’s exactly what should happen as a deterrent against corruption,” agrees Somers. He also points out that anti-corruption activism has targeted politicians across party lines, with Karnataka’s erstwhile Lokayukta, Santosh Hegde, responsible for ousting the state’s BJP chief minister on grounds of corruption. “Anna Hazare is part of a growing chorus. The trend is positive and is good for business and democracy,” says Somers.

While momentum on the political front of the bilateral equation may have slowed a bit this year, due to the US preoccupation with fights on the debt ceiling, deficit and the budget, and Indian parties focusing on state assembly elections, Somers says the lull did not spill over to business. “There may have been a government to government pause, but business has gone full steam ahead,” he said.

WIDER VIEW
But corruption in India has made news in the US outside the context of the Hazare-led movement as well. Business leaders and corporate lawyers have noted increased enforcement by the US of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which has included action against companies bribing officials in India.

Rajan believes India not only needs to act against corrupt officials, but also eliminate opportunites for corruption. “We need to continue the process of reform and reduce nonsensical rules that allow corruption to flourish,” he says, adding that a lot of corruption surrounds land use and acquisition.

Commentators in the US have taken pains to distinguish between the protests in India and other popular movements like the so-called Arab Spring, noting the demonstrations in India were an expression of democracy, not a demand for it.

Rajan says the awareness of corruption and protests against it will be good for India in the long run, but cautions that society must be careful to create a framework that respects the rule of law without room for ‘my way or the highway’ demands. “Sometimes, rule of law is a little slower, but in the long run, more effective than public outrage,” says Rajan.