Should the PM and other dignitaries/high offices be within the ambit of the Lokpal or not? I believe Anna Hazare and Co are being too ambitious in wishing to put everybody under the Lokpal radar. They should instead take a pragmatic approach and demand that the Lokpal should have powers to probe only the PM and the select few.

Think about it. The proposal is not half as counterintuitive as it seems. Firstly, you keep only the top echelons under check and the rest will fall in place. If the minister is not, in the parlance of our times, taking money under the table, who will have the courage to do so? Not the secretary, not joint secretary, and so on down to the chaparasi. In other words, the ministers and the MPs themselves willy-nilly end up becoming watchdogs.

Secondly, the Lokpal will become a compact institution, instead of whole big super-system to keep a watch on a huge system. In the current format, the worrying part is that whether the Lokpal will be able to deliver and deliver in time. Cut out the rest of the functions and you get a lean and mean Lokpal. Just what people want in the first place.

Thirdly, a whole lot of systems are already in place to check corruption elsewhere – from CBI to CVC. The armed forces, the election commission, the public service commission and others are not the issue. The judicial accountability bill, once passed, will take care of judges too.  You don’t need a Lokpal to keep them in line, right?

Granted, this somewhat radical proposal will entail somewhat radical changes in the constitution, but isn’t that the whole idea whose time has come?

PS: If you think the proposal is more in humorous vein, think again. It is what union minister Kapil Sibal has also proposed. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he said the Lokpal should only target graft in the upper echelons of government, so it doesn’t get bogged down. “The Lokpal bill should aim at dealing with corruption in high places,” Sibal was quotes as saying. “People think that public functionaries sitting in high places can get away with murder.” Also: “I don’t want a situation where the Lokpal has to deal with somebody who is, say, an ordinary peon,” Mr. Sibal said. “For that to happen you require a gargantuan machinery.”