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Anna Hazare’s fast may be the beginning to tame corruption in India but the Lokpal Bill, for which he had gone on an indefinite fast, could face some pragmatic difficulties in its implementation.

The Lokpal (an ombudsman, which is slated to come up in every state), if set up, could make India a Ram Rajya literally:

Firstly, the Bill proposes to take corruption head on with it proposing that corruption cases will be decided within a year instead of lingering on for years.

Secondly, the corrupt person concerned, be it a judge, bureaucrat or a politician will have to be sent to jail within two years and the loss incurred to the government will have to be recovered at the time of conviction.

Thirdly, it is also set to give teeth to the common man. If there is red tapism, he or she could go and complain to the Lokpal, for instance, if he or she has not got his voter ID or ration card.

The Lokpal is supposed to get it done within one month. The Lokpal can implement a financial penalty on government officers if a citizen’s request is not taken care of immediately.

The common man can also sight cases of corruption, which would have to be taken to their logical conclusion within two years.

These may be part of the draft. Unfortunately, reality appears to be quite different.

Take for instance the telecom scam, one of India’s biggest scandals. During probe, former telecommunications minister A Raja was found guilty of irregularities and favouring certain telecom companies in its bid for 2G spectrum, causing a massive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the government exchequer.

As per the provisions of the Lokpal Bill, the loss incurred to the government will have to be recovered. So, if the Lokpal already existed, could it have wrested out Rs 1.76 lakh crore from Raja? The answer is unlikely to be in the affirmative.

The scope of the telecom scam is widening by the day. In the latest revelation, corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, who is being questioned by the CBI for her role in the telecom scam, has claimed that agriculture minister Sharad Pawar held controlling stake in DB Realty, whose promoter Shahid Balwa is cooling his heals in jail.

Sharad Pawar and family had also grabbed eyeballs for allegedly being promoter of a company that tried to buy an IPL team. While Pawar managed to wriggle out of the mess, Lalit Modi, IPL chairman, and former junior external affairs minister Shashi Tharoor were ousted from their positions over IPL controversies.

Now, in such a situation, if the Lokpal’s probe against Pawar found him not guilty, owing to lack any evidence, would not the ombudsman be wasting money, resources and time to prove one politician not guilty.

As per the Lokpal Bill, people could file cases against corrupt government servants or politicians and the case is supposed to close within two years (that is, the corrupt person should be convicted in a couple of years).

Now, India has a population of 1.2 billion. So, if we assume the number of complaints in a year to be even 0.1% of the population, that is, 12 lakh, will they be resolved in a year and the sentence handed out in another year?

Moreover, every year cases will keep on mounting. So, will the Lokpal not become similar to our courts where lakhs of cases pile up every year?

Also, are we to believe that every ombudsman will be corrupt-free even when one of our apex anti-corruption bodies, the Central Vigilance Commission, has had its latest head PJ Thomas mired in a controversy over a scam in Kerala?

We are seeing bottlenecks come in the way while forming a committee to draft the Lokpal Bill. You can well imagine what an arduous task it will be to implement the Lokpal Bill when it actually takes shape.