ISAS Briefs

The Lok Sabha (L ower H ouse of Parliament) passed the Lokp al B ill on 27 December 2011 , marking an end to the drama that grip ped the media, the public and political parties for over four months in India . 2 The B ill, to create a Lokpal (ombudsman) structure to oversee complaints of corruption against public officials , has been over four decades in the making ; and it is widely acknowledged that the recent spate of scams that have engulfed the Government galvanised civil society, led by the activist Anna Hazare, to launch mass protests against the rampant corruption in public service.