Day 240-2011 : A Pregnant Victory

It is the flavour of the season and hence has found a place on this blog too.

Anna Hazare and his India Against Corruption movement have just completed round 2 of their battle against the politicians, in and out of power.  Anna broke his 288-hours long fast earlier this morning on the back of the Indian parliament passing a resolution yesterday to agree 'in principle', to his 3 key demands on the content of the bill.  Thanks to Tata Sky, I haven't been able to track the various developments related to the movement for the last 2 days.  I have been depending on the more 'old school' method of consuming news in the last two days, the morning newspapers.

My sense of the the mood that prevails in the country, from what I read in the papers every morning, is one of jubilation.  The movement has been projected as the common man's fight against the powerful egalitarian class.  There seems to be a sense of achievement and empowerment in people at large, due to the developments of the last few days leading to the Anna breaking his fast this morning.  A great victory for democracy!

Or is it? 

Earlier last week I found myself debating the pros and cons of the 'Anna Methodology' with a few of my colleagues.  I found myself questioning the tactics adopted by the social activist and his team.  Mind you, I am all for the cause.  I strongly believe that corruption is like termites, eating into the foundations of our social systems and rendering them hollow.  And I fully support a movement aimed at making the laws in this country strong to rid us of the scourge of corruption.  However, to dictate terms to a democratic institution like the parliament for calling off the fast, to me, is equivalent to blackmail.  More importantly, it sets a dangerous precedent in a country like ours.  It can result in a free for all.  It concerns me.  And it should concern you.

There are voices within the core of Team Anna as well who feel the same way.  Justice Santosh Hegde has expressed similar views in public and not surprisingly he is no longer part of the core team.  I am sure, Justice Hegde, like me, sees an element of populism in the movement.  Anna and his team at times appear to be playing to the gallery, a rather large one too!  Anna's movement and fasts have been compared to the ones undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi.  I think there is a fundamental difference between the two.  Mahatma Gandhi never allowed a situation of 'me versus you' to develop when he agitated...the movement and the fasts focused on the causes. 

My argument with my colleagues was that in any negotiation it is not advisable to take an extreme stand as a starting point.  It gives very little room to manoeuvre to arrive at a 'win-win' solution.  Moreover, it results in a loss of face.  From my perspective, though the country at large might have forgotten it, Team Anna's main demand when he embarked on the fast was to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill in the parliament before August 30.  Anna has not been able to achieve that. 

What has been achieved is a 'pregnant victory' which promises more than it delivers.  For the sake of the strong democratic traditions of this country, I certainly hope that it finally does deliver.

Take care.

Day 113-2011 : There Is Hope!

What's he got that I ain't got!?!?!? The answer to this, these days, could well be : An 'Anna' cap!  Wearing an 'Anna Hazare' cap is the latest 'cool' thing all over the place.

The Anna Hazare Cap - Hep!

Trendy!

It has been fascinating to watch Anna Hazare and his group of crusaders orchestrate the campaign against corruption over the last few weeks.  The first time I heard about the campaign was...on Facebook, on Meera Sanyal's wall!  I had, at that moment, no idea of how big this will become.  This was 'Gandhigiri' revisited!

The core elements were the same as the original methodology.  A lone man, frail and old, using non-violence and fasting as a means to protest against the wrong-doings of all the bad men.  Anna was protesting against the political class' incestuous attempt to rig the drafting of the Lokpal Bill, which would in effect give immunity to them.  The nation exploded in spontaneous anger.  Demonstrations and protest marches and meetings were held in multiple cities across the country to support the movement.

In many senses, this was 'Gandhigiri', 21st century style.  The campaign was all over the internet.  Social networking was leveraged wonderfully! The team also came up with a novel way of enlisting support, by making a missed call!  It looked like the politicos had grossly underestimated the enduring power of Satyagraha remixed with lightning speed communication.  The government finally gave in to all the demands of the protesters, the main one being the inclusion of civil society in the committee which is drafting the Jan Lokpal Bill.

The real battle, however, begins now.  The political class, which was taken aback by the spontaneity of the campaign, is slowly regrouping and trying to hit back.  Almost every day, there is a news report of an allegation of graft or other wrong-doing against the panel members from the civil society.  What the politicians fear is not just a one-off campaign.  They fear the radical ideas of the young group of Anna's supporters.  Anna is just the mascot.  The ultimate goal of this motley group of born again crusaders like Arvind Kejriwal, the Bhushans and Kiran Bedi, is 'Direct Democracy'.  A radical concept which would empower the civil society at the lowest common denominator.  What's more, it proposes the 'Right To Recall', which could be used by the voters of a given constituency if they think their representative isn't doing a good job or is corrupt.

I think some of the ideas related to the 'Direct Democracy' concept are too extreme.  They have in fact the power to destabilise civil society.  There will need to be some moderation before these could be sold to a country as vast as India.

But this is a great start!  One of the things that I firmly believed in the past was that, a revolution can never happen in a country like India.  This campaign has done enough to change that view.  Looks like a revolution is possible. 

There will be a time when the despair, desperation and frustration swelling within the consciousness of a gagged nation will result in a revolution against all that has caused it.  There is hope! 

Take care!