Thursday, April 3, 2025

Anna’s anti-corruption campaign

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The public is known to be a fickle entity. They are usually enamoured by surprises and showmanship. But if that is repeated once too often and things become predictable the crowd will look for other more exciting events. Perhaps the time has come for Team Anna (as the small elite group that drives the India Against Corruption (IAC) campaign is called) to introspect as to where it has gone wrong. Some of the prominent members of the IAC, namely Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi have behaved like demi-gods who can do no wrong. They have chastised the entire political class and have not had the civility to accept other views and to include those in the Lokpal they have proposed to the government. India is an untidy democracy. So when the likes of Kejriwal seek to prove that theirs is a tidy piece of legislation which needs to be passed as it is, lock, stock and barrel, there is sure to be a problem. This attitude has rubbed many parliamentarians the wrong way. The correct thing to do would have been to lobby with parliamentarians for a strong Lokpal and to win them over through gentle prodding. That’s how most things get done in this country. Force as a strategy has never worked.

It cannot be denied that Team Anna’s decision to go political and campaign against the Congress in the Haryana polls has discredited the movement. If there were some genuine brave-hearts fighting to make society corruption-free, they were taken for a grand ride by the powerful sections which had hijacked the agitation somewhere in August. Team Anna had been riding the tiger of public support. They hoped that this would remain a perennial source of power. That made them intransigent. Kejriwal’s propensity to bulldoze his ideas to an elected group is perhaps what has queered the pitch. The Lokpal as authored by Team Anna is what they believe will check corruption in this country. Many are skeptical about it but were willing to go along with the movement in the hope that something is better than nothing.

Even in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, debates on the ‘weak’ Lokpal are baffling. It is yet unclear as to what the political class actually wants. The debates have simply become exercises in futility. Now, state chief ministers like Mamata Banerjee want the Lok Ayukta to be left to the states to decide what form and shape it should take. It would, however, be premature to write off Team Anna for the public mood is unpredictable. Public anger against the political class may yet rally people round anything that challenges this class. For now we can only wait and watch.

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