Life & Beyond : LOKPAL: ANOTHER DAY, ONE MORE PROMISE – WISH IT WALKS THE TALK NOW - IT’S ABOUT FOLLOWING GANDHIAN POLITICS NOW

Sunday 13 November 2011

LOKPAL: ANOTHER DAY, ONE MORE PROMISE – WISH IT WALKS THE TALK NOW - IT’S ABOUT FOLLOWING GANDHIAN POLITICS NOW

Anna Hazare spoke on expanding the core committee soon. He said today in his village Ralegan Siddhi that a meeting will be held soon in Delhi to select the working committee members. There seemed to be some thoughtful process today after weeks and rounds of flip-flops, but going by all what he said, some doubts still remain. He said the number of the core committee members would not be more than 80 and all of them would be trained further. People would be checked for background and character before their induction in the working committee. All would be given representation. Anna had this to say, "We have many people ready to serve, We will send our people to check their background. Will check if they have police case. A person of character will be chosen. A graduate, Muslim, Dalit, adivasi, all will be taken."

A political statement and we need to welcome the political elements of strategy at this stage of the Lokpal battle. It becomes all the more necessary midst increasing voices from the government on going back to its old ways on the Lokpal promise. "I hope we will be able to do our job in quickest possible time...but there are more than 15-17 issues like the inclusion of the Prime Minister (etc)..there are strong pro and con arguments and every argument is being looked at," Parliamentary Standing Committee chairman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said today. And we all know the whole contention is about inclusion of PM and the lower bureaucracy and the citizen’s charter. Then there is Digvijay Singh’s statement saying Anna Hazare is overestimating the Jan Lokpal Bill. Recently Sonia Gandhi, too, targeted Team Anna on its repeated verbal attacks (reminders) on the government. Flat denial by the government on Team Anna’s demand that the Lokpal Bill be modelled on recently introduced Uttarakhand Lokayukta Bill is yet another example to the increasing comfort level of the government. A report titled, Centre regains Lokpal nerve - Govt polishes own version after house panel hearings (November 8, 2011), published in The Telegraph goes a step further - “We have interacted with more than 20 groups as well as constitutional experts, former Supreme Court chief justices and political parties, but none has so far supported the Jan Lokpal draft as it is,” a standing committee member told The Telegraph. “Most of those we have interacted with have serious objections to vital clauses of that draft.”

So some significant fight is brewing in the backdrop. The clear edge that Team Anna enjoyed on August 28 is shaky owing to this very Team Anna only. And regaining and reclaiming things is an uphill task that we all Indians need to win.

And when there is bunch of seasoned politicians before us capable to mould and manipulated things to any extent, we need to remain doubly cautious. It is not a battle where an eye for an eye would do. This Team Anna could not understand. They need to understand and assimilate it now. Likes of Digvijay Singh and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, they say all the adverse things yet keep on smiling while Anna Hazare and his team members lose their calm and get engaged in war of words. The recent spat with Nitish Kumar is one example of how to divert and dissipate your energy and concentration by engaging is useless war of words. What Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi did by commenting negatively on Bihar’s Lokpal Bill was unnecessary. Though no one can claim Bihar is corruption free but no one can deny it is not on the right track and the whole credit goes to Nitish Kumar. His government has enacted many innovative laws (like establishing schools in houses built from unaccountable wealth) to curb corruption and these have been high-talking points in recent days.

Add to that another internal spat in Team Anna – this time between Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi. "She should not have done it. She has said it will not happen again. I would not have done what Kiran Bedi did," Arvind Kejriwal reportedly said on Kiran Bedi’s inflated travel bills controversy. Kiran Bedi hit back by saying, "The only problem is that he didn't understand the issue fully... If he had more understanding of the issue, then his answer would have been different." Though both of them tried to play it down later, they both skipped the press meet yesterday that is again being attributed to increasing differences.

Then there is another problem that is hidden in Anna’s statement. 80 may be a fine number to go with but what about the training clause.

Is Team Anna thinking of training likes of Sandeep Pandey, Rajinder Singh (by likes of Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi, Prashant Bhushan) or is it working to include unknown but sincere people (who keep on writing to Anna Hazare) to the cause?
Previous scenario is pure rubbish. A Development worker with career track would record would not feel comfortable in accepting this.
The second proposition is even dicier. If unknown people with honest intent are to be taken in, it makes the seemingly worn-out constant to remain so – similar controversy ridden faces of Team Anna.
And what about their (the unknown people writing to Anna Hazare to be part of the Movement) acceptability at this stage when Team Anna is at backfoot owing to its own deeds?

There is no direct answer but the hope may be hidden in another statement made by Anna though he may not realize it now. "We do not have any set agenda for the meeting but we got the link and we have discussed all this today," Anna said. Vagueness here may open the door for some more credible and honest faces to chip-in.

It’s not about being political. At this stage it’s only about being political in the fight – the next imperative stage of the strategy – but minus politicking of the day – IT’S ABOUT FOLLOWING GANDHIAN POLITICS NOW.