I write this with a fervent hope that this movement by India Against Corruption can in the long run demolish corruption rampant in the system. My views, with my limited intelligence, is an attempt to see beyond passion.
The movement by Anna Hazare can snowball into anything. The stance of ‘This and That’ is likely to succeed in the long run rather than a posturing of ‘This or That’. The natural process is ‘This and That’. Ego, which resides beyond the realm of reason, comes into reckoning in a ‘This or That’ situation. Let us consider that this ‘This or That’ situation causes the inept and spineless Government to fall or abdicate. That will be a defeat for the movement against corruption which will immediately become directionless and various political forces will apparently hijack the cause and we will have to wait for a new parliament to be elected and sworn in before we know what is in store and the movement is restarted.
At this point the Government seems to be on slippery grounds for an immediate reason other than corruption. It is portrayed as denying Anna the right to protest – a serious charge in any democracy. There are tell tale signs of the cause being hijacked with the ire now directed at the propriety of the Government. The political class just loves it and will lap it up day and night!!! (or is it for the Knight is shining armour (Rahul) to ride out of the night on a white horse and become the hero?).
Currently the ‘Lokpal bill’, in some form, is in Parliament. The other big National party the BJP can speed up the process of discussing the bill in parliament and come up trumps. But it does not have the guts to explicitly take sides one way or the other. If it criticizes Anna the apprehension is that the public sentiments will work against the party. If it goes the whole hog with Anna it will appear to be abetting the subversion of constitutional propriety. So it will prefer the Government to fall in order to gain time and space to work out strategies. The opposition will continue to corner the Government on subverting democracy and wait for it to fall. So no Lokpal or corruption related activities until the next elections. The opposition will try to keep the cake and eat it too.
The atmosphere is pregnant with possibilities. But in all the possibilities as of now the cause (corruption) is being pushed to the background. We are mired in a ‘my right’ vs ‘your right’ fight – much like the fellow crossing the road!!!
“All the guiding principles of military operations grow out of the one basic principle: to strive to the utmost to preserve one's own strength and destroy that of the enemy....” so spoke Mao Tse Tung of war. This is not a war. Here destruction of one of the forces will not mean victory.
Right or wrong, the two mistakes committed by the Civil Society (which includes all of us) are:-
- Lokpal bill should not have been the issue. It should have been corruption and non governance. You can not seriailise agitations saying today it is Lokpal; tomorrow it will be electoral reforms and so on….
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- Fasting should not have been the method, it should have been Dharna. The momentum should have been build up slowly – anything that is build up slowly will sustain longer. Fasting may appeal to the very minority of the urban population (even here there are people like me, however insignificant, who do not approve of it) – it will never appeal to the majority of rural population for whom missing meals is routine.
The other aspect is for our civil society to desist from being garrulous with phrases such as this being a ‘second freedom struggle’ and dialogues like ‘Watan aapke hawale hain sathion’ while being taken away by the police.
I too want a corruption free India.
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