The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

WHAT TEAM ANNA NEEDS TO DO NOW?


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.