Anna Hazare: Only a Moral Victory

As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Anna Hazare brought down to its knees, one of the most arrogant and corrupt governments in our history. He succeeded because of his determination and help from the otherwise complacent middle class. I don’t think that the world and we are going to see something of this kind in our lifetimes. In the world today where violence is often seen as a legitimate means to ends like human rights, Anna is a reminder of all things good. Even though I do not agree with his demands (we have written on that topic in details on this blog), I am in awe of the man. When a hungry and weak Anna got up and said Vande Maataram, I got tingles down my spine. He once again got the country especially the middle class out of their mall and McDonald induced slumber and stand up for Mother India. Proud moment indeed! 

But as we have said on this blog, yet another law without teeth is not going to solve anything. Giving teeth to mortal men and expecting to behave in a fashion conducive to “Satyug” is unrealistic at best. People who will be on the lokpal will have extraordinary powers. We will be expecting them to be impartial. But absolute power corrupts absolutely. My fears are that the new Lokpal bill may give rise to an unsustainable and a corrupt bureaucracy, very much under the influence of the politicos we are trying to make accountable. We already have the first example. 

Now even the worst detractors of Narendra Modi grudgingly acknowledge the progress made by Gujarat under him. His enemies (entire left wing, liberals, pseudo-seculars and their ilk) have done all they could, including lying and cheating to bring the man down. Case in point is Teesta Setalvad. Despite of their worst, the man has not been hurt. If he were corrupt (imagine a UPA led government in Gujarat with all the money pouring in!) he could have made a lot of money. If Mayawati can become mega-crorepati in a poor state like UP then for Modi the sky could have been the limit. But entire media and government machinery has not been able to stick anything to the guy. So what does the Congress do? They use their pet trick of using the party loyal governor to appoint a Modi baiter as the state Lokayukta. The governor Kamla Beniwal who looks as inspiring a leader as a wet sock, is doing her best to make happy her masters in the Family. 

Normally, a pro-Congress lokayukta would not be a problem for Narendra Modi. He can defend himself without any help. But we are too close to the next election. What Congress is hoping that they will accuse him of everything short of the Kennedy assassination and hope that mere appearance of impropriety would score points with the undecided voters. Being so close to the election puts the onus of proving innocence on the defendant rather than proving guilty on the prosecution. But we should not be expecting anything less that this from a party like Congress, which is completely devoid of any morals and achievements. 

It is clear that the Congress is trying to take Modi out of the 2014 equation so that the BJP cannot project him as a PM candidate. If Modi could do for India, what he has done for Gujarat, then we would really be on our way to achieving our full potential. But the Congress and the liberals cannot have that. They are the kind of people who love to cut their nose to spite their face. Such is our luck. Yes. Anna’s victory is going to be a moral victory only.

Anna Hazare And Politicians Response

The response of the politicians has been very predictable. It started off with ignoring Anna. That is the way the UPA has been working. Ignore the issue and hope that it goes away. In this case, the problem persisted and then the dirty tricks department was unleashed. When demonization aided by the media did not work then they came back with a more subtle approach. The glib Kapil Sibbal took advantage of Anna’s trust and got him to quit his fast. Now once bitten, Anna came back better prepared with more resolve. 

This time around the UPA has run out of their usual tricks. Anna has wisely asked to keep Sibbal and PC out of the equation. However, the UPA has found allies- the opposition. Now why would the opposition work to help the party they want to bring down? It could be that they are also afraid of the Jan lokpal bill. That would make sense because there are corrupt politicians even in the party I support. Of course no one would come out and say that reason. So the line being handed is that they do not want to have a body more powerful than the elected parliament. Now that is correct. After all, we are living in a democracy and the body of elected members of Loksabha who are also the keepers of the Indian Constitution should be the most powerful body in the land. But judging by the mess we are in, it is obvious that the system is not working. 

Most successful democracies have a powerful system of checks and balances that keep the politicians honest. Not being a lawyer, I do not know if this mess is due to a flawed constitution or a gross misuse of it. What I do know is that creation of a Lokayukta is going to create a very powerful body. This body will have the power to bring down the corrupt but highly powerful and rich people. This body will also create a mammoth bureaucracy especially if we bring the lower level babus under the purview of this bill. What I do know about human behavior is that power of this kind can and will corrupt anyone. Then who will police the Lokayukta personnel? Will we then create another body? What about the expenses due to this parallel government? Will that not be a major burden to the taxpayer? These details cannot be ignored. 

My bigger concern is who will get to be on this body? Who will decide that? Will the leftist liberal NGOs have a say in this? Because if it were up to these people, hey will work like attack dogs hunting men like Bhai Narendra Modi. A leftist Lokayukta will be like Teesta Setalvad on steroids. 

But then the politicians deserve every bit of this misery. They have had chances after chances to solve the corruption problem. If they have not actually dipped into the dirty money pool they have ignored it for love of power (like Manmohan Singh). They have let it fester until it has become the cancerous tumor it is. Now even if Anna is strong-arming them with unreasonable demands, it is their own fault. They and their minions in the media cannot complain about it. 

So what is a possible solution? How can the politicians and activist meet half way? If both sides approach the issue with sincerity and honesty (a tall demand for sure) then we could enforce the Jan Lokpal bill for a limited time e.g. 10 years during which the system gets cleaned up. It may not be enough time to revamp the work culture but still could encourage the next generation of employees to approach work with a different set of ethics. Meanwhile the government could put in place the sort of checks and balances in the Constitution which should have been there from the beginning. Whatever the measure, the most basic need is for complete transparency and honesty from here onwards. Does anyone think that our politicians can turn the page that quickly? I for one, am not that hopeful. 

Why has PM not faced Anna Hazare between April and August? A start has been made. Ten days after his 'create disturbances' speech, the prime minister told Parliament that his government 'applauds' Anna Hazare and 'respects' his idealism. Oddly, between April and August, the Congress's 'Mr Clean' has never actually faced Anna Hazare. Why is that? 
The answer to that must lie between the prime minister and his conscience. The complete article by TVR Shenoy can be read at:http://www.rediff.com/news/column/column-anna-hazare-india-lokpal-corruption-manmohan-singh/20110826.htm