It was Anna, not Janlokpal Bill

Arvind Kejriwal, one of the activists behind the Janlokpal Bill, in his interview to The Hindu said, “People wanted the JLB”. 

That is a patently wrong assumption to derive from the popular anti-corruption movement that we witnessed in India over the last few weeks.   Most people who showed up at the Anna Hazare Movement gatherings in various cities of India have not read Janlokpal Bill created by these activists.  They do not know that these activists are bent on pushing their version of the bill onto Indians riding the popular mood than sitting down to discuss and debate the issue with others.  Many Indians came to show their support to Anna Hazare who, according to them, is fighting the corruption in India.   These people wanted to express their solidarity with any anti-corruption campaign, not necessarily the Janlokpal Bill.   Kejriwal himself admits in the interview:

When we conducted referendums on the JLB, we used to try and explain its contents to people. But they said they did not want to understand the details. They just wanted to put a mohar [stamp] on Anna.

Kejriwal and his gang of activists are using Anna Hazare to promote their version of the bill which is not very different from the bill proposed by the Government, except that these activists want sweeping powers to one single body without any accountability.  If people were to read various versions of the bill, they would get confused because they all look very similar, except that the devil is in the details.  Looking at the bill proposed by the government, it seems as though Government of India is as keen as these activists to root out the corruption; so why all this hullabaloo and tamasha, one may ask?

Say No to Janlokpal Bill

While we can all celebrate the huge outpouring of the otherwise indifferent youth of India onto the streets triggered by Anna Hazare Movement, and become happy that this movement has singlehandedly woken up the apathetic Government of India to take up the battle against corruption quite seriously, let’s not go overboard and accept Janlokpal Bill.  The draft bill from these activists, the self-appointed guardians of Indian society, whose elitist speeches and attitudes find their way into the provisions of the bill, is as dangerous to India as the corruption itself, if not more.  In trying to fight one disease, let’s not install it with another.  If we adopt the bill imposed by these activists, we may be introducing a deadly cancer while attempting to fight the common cold.  

Anna is not India, India is not Anna

Kiran Bedi, one of the ubiquitous supporters of the current Anna Hazare Movement, in her overenthusiasm, said, ‘Anna is India. India is Anna’.  Little did she realize the significance of that statement!  Back in the heydays when Indira Gandhi was riding absolute power, her supporters chanted, ‘Indira is India. India is Indira’.  Now, we reflect upon that period as a national ignominy when she took over the country in an iron grip, imposed Emergency, stripped Indians of their rights, and put hundreds of her political opponents in jail.  To those who know history, such a chant from Kiran Bedi that ‘Anna is India’ reeks of ignorance or arrogance - both of which are quite dangerous given the popularity of the Anna Hazare Movement.

While discussing Arundhati Roy’s article (that appeared in The Hindu), I commented that it is a serious concern that the supporters of Janlokpal Bill do not include Dalits and Muslims.  If Anna Hazare has to make this an all-encompassing movement to be deemed ‘Indian’, he has to make sure these other groups support his cause, or be contended that he represents only a certain section of Indians.   A lady responded to my comment:

In what way does the Jan lokpall Bill not favor Dalits or Muslims? Do they not want a corruption-free govt?

The implicit assumption in the above question is: “If you are not with us then you are against us”, which seems to be the moot point of Arundhati Roy’s article against Anna Hazare Movement.   Many editors of the print media have openly disagreed with Janlokpal Bill.  Aruna Roy, a noted RTI activist, does not support Janlokpal Bill or the Anna Hazare Movement.  Can we conclude that these people do not stand for anti-corruption? 

The validity of Anna Hazare Movement

Why Anna Hazare Movement makes sense?

All of us who believe in a vibrant democracy should be happy with the current mass participation in the Anna Hazare Movement.  A democracy that whips up a public debate, which brings an all-pervading malaise into the foreground to make it topic of the day, making everyone in the country to sit up and take notice of an issue that concerns us all, definitely makes a healthy nation.  Anna Hazare Movement has singlehandedly challenged the Government of India, woke it up from its slumber – you could practically see our beloved Prime Minister waking up from his eternal nap to give a speech on the Independence Day. 

The Anna Hazare Movement has moved the current administration to sit up, shed its apathy towards corruption, and has created a sense of urgency to get the Lokpal Bill passed in the Parliament.  The subject got undivided attention even from the President of India who devoted some valuable time on the topic of corruption in her nationwide speech on the Independence Day.  Today the media consistently talks about corruption as if it is the newly discovered cancer.   Anna Hazare already got his victory when he mobilized thousands of youth across the country to come out and protest over a cause that is not entirely selfish.  Indian youth who do not pay much attention to the social and political issues have embraced this cause.  The movement gives the youth of the nation a motivation to participate in the political affairs of their country.  This is all for some good, one can hope.

Nixon, Indira and Lokpal Bill

Indians should know about Watergate Scandal, because it is an interesting story, with lot of lessons to be learnt.  It is a story of a country and its people which fought to defend its democratic institutions from various encroachers; sometimes the encroacher was the President of the country. 

Richard Nixon

In the early 1970s, United States of America was rocked by Watergate Scandal.  On 17 June 1972, few men were arrested for breaking into Democratic Party’s office in Watergate Complex. These men were there to plant bugs in the opposition party’s office with the consent of President of United States, Richard Nixon. These men were later convicted for attempted interception of telephone and other communications against wiretapping laws.

When the complicity of the President of United States was discovered and published by sagacious and committed journalists of Washington Post and New York Times, the people of United States, who were educated to value and defend their democratic institutions rose up in genuine anger.  Nixon tried to stall the proceedings by invoking special privileges of a President.  The court ordered Nixon to hand over the tapes which established his involvement.  The eventual prosecution and hearings found Nixon guilty of obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress.  When the House of Representatives started formal procedures to impeach Nixon, he resigned.  His political career was over.  That’s how Nixon paid the price for subverting the much cherished institutions of United States of America.  He remained a disgraced President (though later day historians feebly attempted to resurrect his former image). 

Why Anna Hazare will fail!

Two days ago, lakhs of urban middle class Indians have come onto the streets in a show of support for Anna Hazare’s victory against Government of India when the latter conceded Anna’s demand to form a committee with some civilians in it.  While this outpouring from these yuppie Indians looks good on TV and internet campaigns, I ask myself some basic questions.  Are we really on our way to root out corruption with this show of support and introduction of Lokpal Bill?  Are we about to change the system?  Unfortunately, the answer I get from myself is a big No. 

To give a perspective, imagine a rally or a fast taken up by a Gandhian to stem out casteism from our lives.  We may see a similar response from many Indians who are ‘fed up’ with casteism in this country.  We may naively believe that such rallies and fasts may be the first step towards extirpating casteism from our society.  But the reality is that casteism is so deeply entrenched into our system that a mere fast or rally will not make a dent in its solid structure.   At the most, such rallies and fasts combating such deep-rooted problems will have a symbolic value.  I don’t underestimate such symbols.  I believe they are quite important.  But it would be unrealistic to believe that a single legislation or law will somehow curb casteism from this country.   The same holds true for corruption. 

To all those yuppie Indians who actually believe that this event from Anna Hazare is going to actually bring any change, here is the bad news – nothing is going to change.  I write this not out of cynicism but with a sense of realism to exhort the anti-corruption activists to do much more than what they are currently doing if they are really serious about the cause.  

Anna Hazare: Lessons for future

Anna Hazare, a noted ‘Gandhian’ and an activist, who has earlier played a role in fighting for Right to Information Act has taken up fast to bring more teeth to Lokpal Bill, an instrument to curb the corruption at highest offices in this country.   Many urban middle class Indians have come forward to support him in this cause.  Relay hunger strikes have sprung up in many cities in India.  Artists and intellectuals lent support.  It is heartening to see so many yuppie Indians coming out onto streets to voice their opinion against corruption.  Not many movements in the recent history have seen the urban middle class coming out of their secure careers and gated communities to take the streets in protest on a universal and overarching cause.    At the most, the urban middle families are known to fight for their selfish needs like parks for their kids, or against reservations for lower castes, or for stopping the government from demolishing their illegal houses. 

A phenomenon like this, where urban middle class across the entire country has participated and expressed opinion on the streets or on the internet for a cause that is not just selfish but helps even the common man should be celebrated as truly historic.  But some hard questions remain, as to how long they are willing to fight, and will they be perseverant  enough  to reach a logical end.  Or is it just a one-off incident and phenomenon where they got attracted to the event because they do not know enough details and hence got carried away by the mere symbolism that sounded deliriously romantic and heroic like in movies where one man takes on a mighty nation and ends corruption once and for all.  Are they participating in it to fight their own guilt of apathy towards the country around them? Does this cause seem to have a lofty goal where their mere participation can be recollected and remembered as their one-time participation to erase their years of apathy? Do they know what they are in for?  Do they know how long it will take to actually achieve the desired results?