Firoz.T.Totanawala
The Bangalore Metro Reporter
15th September 2011 issue-
THE BAD ROAD FOR A GOOD CAUSE!
ANNA MOVEMENT- A DANGEROUS TREND FOR DEMOCRACY!
Anna Hazare has achieved a
victory by forcing the government and the parliament to accept his demands.
Despite strong reservations about Anna’s demands of enforcing his Jan Lokpal
Bill, both the ruling and opposition parties held a special session agreeing to
Anna’s demands so that he could end his fast. Anna Hazare’s unregistered NGO
‘Civil Society’ comprising of half a dozen retired officials and advocates have
held the government and the parliament to ransom to achieve their goal. The
Anna movement ably assisted by a large section of the electronic media, and
print media is definitely a threat to the constitution and sovereignty of the
country.
Nobody in his senses supports corruption but given the
helpless situation one is in, they end up throwing their hands in despair.
Corruption is not limited to Government officials and politicians, but rather the
entire society including the Media is corrupt.
However, the
society has been making efforts at curbing corruption. First it was Anti
Corruption Bureau, then, it was vigilance commission and now Lokayukta’s and Lokpal. The Lokayuktas look after the corruption
charges in the State Government and Lokpal is to look after Central Government.
While many states have established Lokayuktas, the Central Government is yet to
establish Lokpal.
It is this Lokpal
that has become the epicenter of Anna Hazare’s movement. In the last twenty
years, the Lokpal Bill was tabled in the parliament but for reasons unknown, it
did not see the light of the day. Early this year, the UPA Government drafted a
Lokpal Bill to fight corruption, but, the bill was not worth the paper it was typed.
It is at this point
that Anna Hazare, a social worker from Maharashtra
with some Gandhian values, came to the fore. He demanded a strong Lokpal Bill
and soon a few self styled intellectuals like Arvind Kejrival, an RTI activist,
Shanthi Bhushan, a former law minister, Kiran Bedi, a former police official,
Swami Agnivesh etc. surrounded him. They convinced Anna to take the fight to
the national level. Very soon, a draft ‘Jan Lokpal Bill’ was drafted by Shanthi
Bhushan and his son Prashant Bhushan and they took
the help of the Lokayukta Santosh Hegde who was hunting big fishes in
Karnataka.
Once the draft was
ready, Anna announced his ‘fast unto death’ demanding the implementation of his
‘Jan Lokpal’ bill. The managers of Anna movement had meticulously planned to
create publicity hype by enrolling the services of few media channels and
newspapers. The fast by Anna was sensationalized and Anna’s
team started styling themselves as representatives of civil society.
Anna who is not
even a matriculate does not understand the law or its implications and
therefore the caucus around him completely took control over him and he
literally has become a captive of the caucus. The caucus made him to announce
fast unto death in Delhi
The electronic
media, most of which were controlled by MNCs became a stake holder in Anna
movement and instigated the people to back Anna movement. People who are
helplessly suffering the cancer of corruption readily backed him. Anna’s caucus
ensured that the movement spread to all cities and towns in the country. The
media played the role of instigator and every move, every word and every
gestures of Anna was played to the gallery. Anna was painted by the electronic
media as the new avatar of Mahatma Gandhi. The RSS also entered the fray by
supporting Anna. ABVP, the student wing of RSS, was romped in to get the school and college students to participate in
the movement. The caucus used the hi-tech means like Face book, Twitter etc. to
spread the movement among the educated youths.
The Government on
its part tried its best to negotiate with Anna, but it was not allowed to talk
to him directly and only Kejrival, Kiran Bedi and Prashanth Bhushan were available
on his behalf. It is another matter that there was strong opposition to Anna
team’s movement by many prominent people, but Anna team was adamant.
Anna continued his
fast declaring that he will not end until his Jan Lokpal Bill is passed. The
Anna team was not prepared to let the parliament debate the bill, referring to
the Standing Committee and following other constitutional procedures. These
demands of Anna team are definitely anti democracy. How one can dictate terms
to the Government and parliament? They even asked their supporters to lay seize
to MPs houses to force them to fall in line with Anna’s Jan Lokpal Bill. Finally,
the Government and the opposition bowed to the pressure tactics, nay, sheer
black mail of Anna team and held a special session of the parliament and agreed
for incorporating Anna’s Jan Lokpal Bill!
Even here, Anna
team wanted the parliament to pass the resolution
agreeing for Jan Lokpal Bill. But some of the veteran parliamentarians realised
Anna team’s design and refused to accept this demand. Even the Government was
not prepared to subvert the democratic and constitutional values to appease
Anna who had completed 12 days of fasting. It was only on a humanitarian reason
that is to save his life, the parliament, under pressure debated the issue and
decided to go for a stronger Lokpal Bill. And Anna ended his fast.
Unfortunately, the
fight against corruption has turned to be a fight against constitution and this
is a very danger trend. Frankly speaking, thousands of people who participated in
the agitation do not know for what purpose they backed Anna. Except knowing
that Anna is fighting corruption, they do not know what actually Anna team
wanted and how they would fight corruption! For thousands of college students
who participated in the agitation it was merely a merry time.
Anna and his team
cared two hoots for the office of the PM and the parliament. Manmohan Singh
personally wrote a letter to Anna to end his fast assuring to do the needful
over his demands and even the Parliament appealed to him
to end the fast, but, Anna remained stubborn. He only listened to half-a-dozen of
his close followers. He showed disrespect to the PM and even the parliament
which is the symbol of India
Forget about all
these. Anna and his team have arm twisted the democratic process to achieve
their goal and there are chances of they resorting to similar stunts in future
to further their vested interests.
The offshoot of
Anna’s triumph over the democratic traditions will be very dangerous in future
if people of standing follow Anna line of agitation. Whether Anna and his
teammates like it or not, there are many popular leaders who command respect
from the people. What if they resort to Annagiri to achieve their demands?
For example, there
are many tall leaders who are leading the separatist movement in Jammu and Kashmir Independence ’
to Kashmir , would the Government accept it? It
goes without saying that they may have some justifications just like Anna team
who were treating their Jan Lokpal Bill as sacred, despite many serious flaws
in the Bill. Similarly, some leaders may undertake fasting demanding a separate
state. Can the Government oblige?
What if the ‘Central Government Employees Union ’s leaders sit on fast unto death, demanding repeal
of Lokpal Bill? What if some fanatic Hindu organisations with some backing of
few thousand people go for ‘Fast unto death’ demanding scrapping of minority
status to Muslims and Christians, what will the Government do?
These people can
create media hype. With the involvement of willing media both print and
electronic, they can whip up emotions and even create law and order problems.
What can one do in such cases? The way in which the Government surrendered
before Anna and his team, has set a bad precedent.
Forget about it. Will
the Jan Lokpal Bill ease out corruption? Arguably, it is only a mechanism to
fight corruption. It is not the end but only the beginning. To eradicate
corruption, the mindset of the people has to change first. Moreover the bill
only scopes the corruption in Government department and corruption is not
limited to Government employees and politicians. When compared to the
corruption in corporate and other institutions in private sector including the NGOs,
the corruption in Government pales into insignificance. It is indeed the
private companies in the making and the volume and intensity can be understood
with the 1.75 lakh crore 2G spectrum scam! Before we end, just please note that
Anna and his team formed an NGO ‘Civil Society’ to fight against corruption.
And interestingly or shockingly, their NGO itself is unregistered. That is all.
No comments:
Post a Comment