All that
it has not been doing in last two months!
An
emergency meeting of the core group members has been called on Saturday. It is
not clear if Anna Hazare would attend this meeting. Hopefully it should be
aimed at damage control. Much is at stake. At stake is the hope shown to the
common man that he has a voice and he can make it heard. But this ‘core group’
has become a sort of enigma – much in news but lacking in substance if we see
the developments in last two months. Core group should have been the filtered
group to consolidate activities on other levels and in different parts of the
country to take cumulative decisions of impact to send a united message at the
national level. But there is just this ‘core group of five faces facing the
crisis of trust now. There are no other visibly active faces. There happens to
be 22-member ‘India Against Corruption’ core group but it comes in news only with
headlines like members quitting over differences or members uncomfortable over
issues.
Much
needed to be done and on a war-footing. NOW.
- There has to be just one focus –
‘Lokpal’ – efforts should not be diverted unless this goal is achieved.
Any agenda diversification is like diluting the stakes involved in having
a powerful ombudsman institution.
- The ‘Jan Lokpal’ focus has to be
realigned. Initially it was about bringing the proposed ombudsman
institution on legislative platform. Now it has to be ‘Lokpal’ awareness
campaign intended to reach to the masses outside metros and big cities.
- A strategy should be drawn to
chart the ways to find how the ‘Lokpal’ can be put on the trajectory the
RTI Act has been on. RTI has been a real empowerment tool and ‘Lokpal’
needs to go beyond that.
- The movement since its genesis
till now has sustained on the wave of Gandhian Symbolism embodied by Anna
Hazare. In the next step, an efficient team is needed to consolidate and
strengthen the gains made. A core group of these five would never be able
to achieve this. Activists from diverse backgrounds, areas and expertise
need to come together.
- Gandhi has always been relevant
and the reignited Gandhian fervour has given the much needed chance to
revisit the Gandhian ideology and political vision. The need is to
capitalize on it.
- Multiple groups on the ground,
beyond social networking, are needed to connect the dots, from Nagaland to
Gujarat, from Ladakh to Rameshwaram.
- The difference of internal
democracy, dissension and diversity of opinion is to be understood. A
solid team for a cause like ‘Lokpal’ needs to maintain the culture of healthy
debate on diversity of opinion.
- As the human force associated with
such causes are volunteer in nature, strict discipline in observing the
mutual respect is a must – and members quitting the ‘Lokpal’ movement are
sighting Kejriwal’s dictatorial ways as one of the main reasons. No one,
not even Anna Hazare can be allowed to hijack the momentum achieved – and Arvind
Kejriwal needs to understand it.
- Agreed, media management including
social networking was apt during the August Fast but it has been equally
lethargic post-August. Media can be managed to propagate ideas and ideals
to spread the message to strengthen the ‘Lokpal’ movement. Instead of
reacting, proactive measures can be designed on media and social
networking platforms to aware and include.
- And above all, the need is to save the soul from empty rhetoric of loose cannons. People understand – support to April and August Fasts shows that – they will understand even now. Getting to the same level of sledging with adversaries would only deteriorate the seriousness of the issue.
All is
not lost yet as the opponents on the other side have been even more pathetic in
handling the ‘Lokpal’ sentiment post-August 2011.
In last
two months, many of the steps taken by Team Anna have sent wrong messages.
Their personal opinions and professional life issues have only added to the
misery. They need to understand the pressure of the intense scrutiny and need
to balance their lives accordingly. We chose a life for us. They have chosen to
be part of this struggle themselves. It is a different thing that their
opponents are, too, committing mistakes only. Whatever we call it mudslinging
or character assassination, it is not going to work as it didn’t work during
April and August Fasts if the common man continues with the Anna phenomenon
attachment.
And the
need is to spread this ‘Anna phenomenon attachment’ in the most non-partisan
way possible, beyond sledging, above rhetoric. The need is to concentrate the
efforts on a coherent ‘Lokpal’ strategy away from the diversionary acts.
