Civil society can flag, not flog an issue: Bhagwati

Noted economist, Jagdish N Bhagwati today backed the UPA government's handling of Anna Hazare's agitation for a strong Lokpal, saying the civil society was free to make suggestions but it cannot be allowed to impose solutions.

As Anna Hazare launched another scathing attack on the government on Thursday, there was a word of advice for the civil society that Hazare represents.

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“They should learn the value of dialogue, not diatribe,” noted economist Jagdish N Bhagwati said, delivering the Intelligence Bureau Centenary Endowment Lecture on “Designing Institutions for Governance Reforms on Thursday.

Bhagwati, who teaches economics and law at Columbia University, also took pot-shots at the Anna Hazare movement that had “turned into uncivil society instead”.

“The mayhem among those activists reminds one of American free-style wrestling where there are no rules or, more cynically, the only rule is that you must hit below the belt,”

Bhagwati — who held the licence raj responsible for sowing the seeds of corruption that trickled down to the lower bureaucracy over time — said the greatest disappointment with the civil society was their presumption that they could supplant the democratic process.

“The UPA government has been exactly right: the civil society can agitate, it can make suggestions but it cannot be allowed to impose solutions. They are good at flagging an issue; they are not good at flogging it,” Bhagwati said.

Bhagwati also emphasised that the Lokpal, in any form, would not prevent corruption but reduce its adverse effects.

“The real problem … is not its (Lokpal’s) problematic efficacy. Rather it lies in the fact that these measures do not provide mitigation which would reduce the incentives for corruption,” he said.