By B Raman
A better option will be a nation-wide campaign by Team Anna to convert
what has remained an elitist middle class movement into a mass movement of the
people based on three slogans: "Say No To Bribe", "Bring in Jan
Lokpal" and "Free the CBI From Govt Clutches", notes B Raman.
In an excellent analysis on the morning of August 2, under the title
"Dismissive Congress In No Mood To Engage With Anna", Smita
Gupta, The Hindu's New Delhi correspondent, wrote: "A
year-and-a-half after Mr Hazare placed the issue of corruption in the public
domain, striking a chord with a middle class unhappy with the slowdown in the
economy, the movement appears to have fizzled out."
The fact that Hazare and his team had themselves realised that their
movement had reached a dead-end became obvious a few hours later when a group
of eminent persons released a statement appealing to the fasting Anna and his
colleagues to end their fast and continue their struggle by building an
alternate political force.
This appeal was seen by many as the beginning of a search for a
face-saving by a group of civil society leaders to salvage the movement from an
embarrassing second fizzle-out after the one of last year in Mumbai.
The government's dismissive attitude and the poor response from the
students of Delhi to the appeal of Arvind Kejriwal to miss their classes for a
week and come to Jantar Mantar seemed to have turned the scale against those
who were in favour of continuing the fast and keeping up the confrontation
against the government.
Later that day, Hazare announced the decision of the team to give up the
fast at 5 pm on Friday and discuss what next. From his remarks, it is not clear
that he has now come round to the view that forming an alternate political
party to contest the 2014 elections on a plank of clean, people-friendly,
honest government was the only option left to him.
Team Anna failed to electrify the common people in the rest of the
country.
In media interviews given by him before the fast, he had indicated that
while he might be inclined to back some members of his team with a good track
record if they decided to contest the elections, he was disinclined to contest
himself or form a political party of his own. Many have assumed after his
remarks on the termination of the fast that he has now veered in favour of a
new political party to enter the electoral fray. It is yet to be seen whether
this is so.
The movement against corruption has not failed. The moral and
intellectual support enjoyed by Anna from large sections of the middle class of
this country has not dwindled. At the same time, there is a fatigue with the
tactics adopted by the movement to achieve its objective of a corruption-free India.
The frequent resort to dramatic fasts and attempts to coerce the
government through various pressure tactics to concede its demands were having
less and less takers. The law of diminishing returns had set in, highlighting
the need for a change of tactics.
Most discouraging was the fact that Anna and his movement had failed to
electrify the common people in the rest of the country. It remained largely an
elitist-cum middle class movement.
Forming an alternative political party that can deliver within the two
years that remain before the elections is not going to be easy. Apart from the
lack of funds, the lack of political cadres who can carry its electoral fight
to different parts of the country would stand in the way of its political
exercise succeeding.
Moreover, having thus far projected the movement as a moral crusade not
owing its inspiration to any political party, it cannot now seek to join hands
with existing political parties for carrying the movement forward. That will
result in a further dilution of the credibility of the movement and make Team
Anna appear as a group of political opportunists incognito from the beginning.
A better option will be a nation-wide campaign by Hazare to convert what
has remained an elitist middle class movement into a mass movement of the
people based on three slogans: "Say No To Bribe","Bring in Jan
Lokpal" and "Free the CBI From Govt Clutches".
Till now, the people were being brought to New Delhi to demonstrate the
people's power of the movement. Now, it is time for Anna to go to the masses of
this country to demonstrate his concerns for them because of the cancer of
corruption and rally them in support of his cause.
Backing of masses, not threat of fasts
What Anna needs is a movement patterned after the Bhoodan movement of
Acharya Vinoba Bhave. Vinobaji did not place his faith in Delhi. He placed it
in the masses in the rest of India. He undertook a padayatra from village to
village, from town to town to disseminate his message of "land for the
landless peasant".
He did not have to go to Delhi from time to time to demonstrate his
coercive power. Delhi went to him wherever he was in recognition of his moral
and spiritual force. He did not succeed in achieving his objective of
re-distribution of land, but he succeeded in creating a mass awareness of the
economic and social discrimination against the peasants.
Unless the people are made aware of the need to fight corruption by
refusing to give bribe for whatever reason, the movement will remain without
moral force. It will be a show-off movement as it has remained till now without
moral attraction.
If Anna can persuade large sections of the people of this country to
refuse to pay bribe, the movement can achieve half its objective.
His emphasis on the need for a Jan Lokpal and independence for the CBI
is important. But, as rightly pointed out by Justice Katju, some of the ideas
underlining these measures as conceived by him and his team are impractical.
They will create a new bureaucracy as oppressive as the one existing and create
new avenues for harassment.
How to make the CBI professionally independent and accountable without
letting it become a rogue elephant not amenable to any political control?
Should it be converted into a constitutional institution under a collective
leadership consisting of two or three directors equally empowered and required
to decide and act in unison? Such questions have not been debated by Anna and
his team. It is time to have an eminent persons group to examine such
questions, revisit their idea and come out with alternate institutional
formulations that could be placed before the people and the political parties.
The country needs a rejuvenated movement against corruption led by Anna and
carried forward by his young followers. That rejuvenation has to come from new
models of corruption-free governance to be aimed at, new ways of achieving it
and mass participation in the movement. Its power has to come not from threats
of fasts, but the backing of the masses.
By the kind courtesy of Rediffmail.com
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