Firoz.T.Totanawala The Bangalore Metro Reporter LIVING ON THE EDGE ANNA HAZARE & CO

Firoz.T.Totanawala

The Bangalore Metro Reporter

1st November 2011 issue-

LIVING ON THE EDGE

                                  ANNA HAZARE & CO

Anna Hazare’s so called movement ‘India Against Corruption’ which turned into ‘India Against Congress’ is showing all signs of fizzling out due to serious differences between the leaders of the core committee. Anna team’s foray into the politics where Anna has campaigned against Congress has not been. Added to this, is Anna’s encouragement to Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejrival who have kept him as their puppet too has not gone down well and some members have already distanced themselves from Anna’s IAC. It is easy to whip up emotions during a movement but it is very difficult to sustain the movement.

It was Kiran Bedi first who coined the slogan ‘Anna is India and India is Anna’ and now Arvind Kejrival, has coined another slogan “Anna is above Parliament’’! Even though people at large and even the so called intellectuals were shocked by these proclamations, Anna never raised his finger against such vulgar display of sycophancy and on the contrary enjoyed it. These two proclamations apparently sum up the reality about Anna’s IAC (India Against Corruption). Interestingly, no other members of the Anna team have also raised their concern about such slogans.

Few days back Prashanth Bhushan who advocated plebiscite in Jammu & Kashmir was roughed up by Kashmiri youths. The separatists backed by Pakistan are demanding the plebiscite in J&K and his statement only supported their cause. One could condemn the physical assault on Prashanth Bhushan but not condone his blasphemy in indirectly supporting traitors.

It is to be recalled that his father Shanthi Bhushan was the Law Minister in the first ever non Congress Government in the country in 1977. It was the slogan ‘Indira is India and India is Indira’ that played a dominant role then which ultimately brought Janata Party under Loknayak Jay Prakash coming to power. And surprisingly, the same Shanthi Bhushan has now accepted the slogan ‘Anna is India and India is Anna’. The same Shanthi Bhushan who as the Law Minister abolished many draconian laws enacted by Smt. Indira Gandhi, on the plea that supremacy of the parliament can not be compromised is now living up with the slogan ‘Anna is above Parliament’!

Arguably, Anna team’s adventures in Hissar Loksabha bye elections have betrayed its political colours. On the pretext of forcing the Government to bring his version of Jan Lokpal Bill, Anna called upon the Hissar voters to defeat Congress. Arvind Kejrival toured the constituency pouring venom on Congress and Anna too sent his recorded statement to the people to vote against Congress. However, the hard reality is that Congress never stood a chance of winning the Hissar seat and has not won it for the last three terms. The bye election was necessitated by the death of the sitting MP Bhajan Lal, the former CM of Haryana and while his son contested the election, Congress was nowhere near, even in challenging him. And smartly, Anna team claimed credit for the defeat of Congress in Hissar!

Curiously, the Anna team never bothered to adopt the same fight against corruption in other five bye elections across the country including Koppal! They simply could not dare to follow the same policy in Andhra Pradesh etc.

Of course, Anna’s political adventurism had its fall out. Santosh Hegde has already distanced himself from the Anna team over its political ambitions. In fact, he wanted wider consultations over the Bill to make it a strong one against Anna’s insistence that only his version of Jan Lokpal Bill be passed. Except leading IAC in Bangalore during Anna’s fast at Ramlila grounds, Santosh Hegde has kept aloof from the Anna team.

Earlier Swamy Agnivesh, feeling bad about the overbearing and autocratic handling of the movement by Kiran Bedi and Kejrival distanced himself from the team. Baba Ramdev left the movement as Anna Team did not support him in his fight against the Black money stashed abroad! Further, two respected Muslim leaders distanced from the team during the Hissar episode.

Later two more prominent members, P. V. Rajgopal and Rajender Singh distanced themselves from the Anna movement. And as on now, the Anna team has people who do not matter much to the public. Moreover, Anna has invited the wrath of Shiv Sena boss Bal Thackery who had earlier supported him and also warned him not to talk loosely about the Shiv Sena. Anna has also snubbed RSS which was the movement’s backbone and he has even taken exception to RSS Boss Bhagawat’s support to the IAC.

Now, with Anna himself in the dock over his trust issue, the tables are turned against him. The Supreme Court is hearing a petition against Anna and his trust where a judicial commission has found out many irregularities and misappropriations. There are also serious allegations about the funds collected for IAC and its spending by the Anna team.

If the desertions from Anna team continue, only Anna, Kiran Bedi, Kejrival and Sisodia will remain in the end. There is another interesting fact talked about Anna being a freedom fighter. Anna is now 73 years old and when the freedom came, he was just nine years old. It is hard for one to accept a boy of nine years to have become freedom fighter.

It is very easy to whip up emotional issues during the initial days of any movement. But it is very difficult to sustain the tempo of the movement. Mahatma Gandhi used to say ‘If means are good, end will always be good’, but, Anna team may not have known this famous saying of Gandhiji.