Once again, Anna and Lokpal bill – V.S. Sardesai
Since Anna Hazare’s current movement on corruption started from April 2011 to be precise, I was always baffled, confused and puzzled on two issues viz. Anna himself and Lokpal and I had expressed my doubts on every occasion I had written on the above subjects ; in the article ‘The Myth of Lokpal’, I have said that if one studies coolly the sequence of the events, one will find that the movement is nothing but a very well and carefully planned strategy to divert the attention of the people from the main issues that they are facing today and which the top icons want to avoid at any cost if possible because of the personal losses they would be suffering otherwise and that Anna even though may be the main actor in the drama may not be responsible in formulating the strategy though he may be a willing partner to the same; I had however decided to close the subject so far as I am concerned as the matter was discussed many times; but the recent disclosures on the subject made me change my decision.
Till he started the movement sometimes in April 2011, Anna was known mostly in Maharashtra as an honest and sincere social worker and leader and his field of work was mostly confined within Maharashtra. In his career until then, he has never entered into the national scene leave aside international. But as soon he started this movement against corruption by undertaking fast unto death he became not only a national leader but also got international fame. He was not only hailed as second or modern Gandhi by the media but also American government asked our government not to take any action against him. The media started giving him extraordinary exposure and publicity all 24×7 hours a day. In fact he had also started a new venture in 1991 called ‘Bhrastachar Virodhi Jan Andolan’ BVJN- (Public Movement against Corruption) and had undertaken fasts also; but at that time no such publicity was given to him. This was one thing which puzzled me. Why should a foreign government take so much interest in the internal matter and take cognizance of such events? In fact undertaking fasts is not a new thing for India and for Anna; and why should the media give so much extraordinary exposure and publicity to him only this time calling him second Gandhi? Is it an impartial reporting by the media or there is some purpose or design behind it and if so who is behind all this? If we consider the sequence of events, it will be found that virtually within one day he jumped from a regional social worker to national leader and got international fame; I don’t think there is anyone else who metamorphosed so fast from regional to national scene getting international fame. What is the secret?
Second thing which puzzled me is that even though Anna had started the new venture against corruption( BVJN ) in 1991 and the Lokpal Bill is pending in the Parliament since 1968 that is much earlier than the starting of his venture he never even for once has taken up the matter of Lokpal bill during the last twenty years even though he had undertaken fasts earlier against corruption and now only all of a sudden he not only has taken up the matter of Lokpal but agitated to get it passed immediately and goes on fast. If it was so urgent why did he not agitate to get it passed for all the twenty years since he started the new venture against corruption? And that is why I had always expressed my reservations and was skeptic about the real intentions and purposes of the Team Anna’s this movement and agitation against corruption. The very fact that he did not agitate for passing of the Lokpal Bill earlier for the last twenty years or so, even though he had started his movement against the corruption in 1991 i.e. after more than twenty years since the Lokpal Bill was first introduced in the Parliament, clearly shows that he never knew anything about lokpal or about the Lokpal Bill as a means to remove corruption till someone briefed him about it. The question therefore is when did he first came to know about Lokpal and how? Surely at that time there was no Team Anna. The question is why such an issue which was sidetracked for more than forty years became so important and urgent all of a sudden just like Anna Hazare becoming a national leader with international fame from a regional social worker virtually within a day? Is there any relation or connection between the two? I had given my interpretation in my earlier articles especially in “The Myth of Lokpal”, The Anna Phenomenon” etc, purely based on the sequence of events and logic. However the recent disclosures made by Raju Parulekar, ex blogger of Hazare and Shambhu Dutt, the 94 years Gandhian proved my fears to be correct.
Raju Parulekar has accused the Anna team calling them ‘the gang of four’ of using Hazare as demi God to further their interest and holding the government to ransom; so also he says that this gang of four has misguided the people to believe that Jan Lokpal Bill if passed will remove the corruption. I think they have misguided not only the people but also Anna in believing that Jan Lokpal Bill is the answer to corruption. In fact Parulekar’s clarifications have solved many of my doubts. Firstly it explains the mystery of the extraordinary publicity and exposure given to Anna by the media day and night making him second mahatma and a national leader within a day giving international fame or making him a demi-God in Parulekar’s words. Secondly how they chose Lokpal Bill as an issue for the agitation was solved by Shanbhu Dutt who was fasting for implementation of Lokpal Bill and who broke his fast at the request of Team Anna promising him to take up the matter themselves. Many questions however have remained unanswered. Firstly when did Anna came to know about Lokpal Bill and how or who briefed Anna about the Lokpal Bill and why? Secondly when did the team meet Anna for the first time and why? Why should the team take so much interest in removal of corruption only now? I hope we will get the answers to these questions also in the due course. In the mean time we can only guess.
I feel the answers lie and the mystery will be solved if we study the past events. The key lies in the Baba Ramdevji’s relentless efforts and movement of bringing back the illegal and black moneys deposited by some shameless Indians in foreign banks especially in Swiss banks and declaring it as national wealth and exposing the names of such traitors and the Swiss government’s declaration to disclose the names of such depositors if requested by the concerned government; I think this made such depositors panicky and they started thinking of finding a way out to scuffle the movement and divert the attention of the people from the main issues; and Anna’s fast and the Jan Lokpal Bill appears to be its result. How it happened, we can only guess. Either these depositors some of whom are very influential and holding topmost positions in the government and the ruling parties approached the team members who are NGO’s directly or through their foreign donors to implement a strategy formulated by them or requested them to formulate such strategy to find a way out. In either case it resulted in formulating a strategy to hijack the movement of Ramdevji and divert the attention of the masses from its main issues of bringing back the moneys from the foreign banks and disclosing the names of such depositors. For this, the team required two things; one, a person commanding respect and faith of the people and who can convince the people and whom the people will follow blindly and secondly an equally or more attractive and important issue as that is being preached by Ramdevji. They found the person in Anna Hazare; the difficulty however was that Anna was only a regional social worker; they got over the difficulty by giving him extraordinary publicity through media day and night making him a second Gandhi that Anna became a household name within a day. The difficulty of issue was also solved by adopting the other issue of Ramdevji viz. corruption which was preferable to disclosing the names of the foreign banks account holders; but the question was that corruption being an abstract issue ultimately would not stand against the concrete issue of bringing back the moneys from foreign banks. They wanted something to show that concrete steps are being immediately taken to end the corruption; they chose Lokpal Bill which was pending in Parliament for more than forty years. They amended it to fool the people that they are making it strong calling it as Jan Lokpal Bill. But to their dismay they found that one Shambhu Dutt, an old Gandhian of 94 years has already started a fast for its passing and implementation even though there was no publicity for him in the media. Not to be discouraged they approach Dutt requesting him to withdraw his fast, promising to get the bill passed and this is how the whole melodrama on corruption started.
They must have approached Hazare with their plan of agitating against corruption by getting the new Lokpal Bill as drafted by them which they called as Jan Lokpal Bill passed in Parliament and which, they must have told him, will remove corruption, may be without dis- closing their real intention or purpose. They must have also exploited his weakness for fame and Hazare must have agreed believing them and what they have said as corruption was also an issue which was dear to him without going through the bill as drafted by them or trying to find out whether what they say is true or not. He must also felt very happy as he would become a national leader from regional social worker and for being called second Gandhi.
But the difficulty is that every human being has got certain limitations and becomes successful only if he works within his limits and knowing his limitation; if he crosses his limits for any reason whatsoever he gets exposed; the same thing happened with Hazare; it seems that he is carried away by the propaganda made by his team making him in the words of Parulekar a demi God and started thinking high of himself without understanding his limitation with the result that he is slowly getting exposed. It now appears that Dutt is regretting for having handing over the baton to Anna team may be because he might be feeling lack of sincerity of purpose.
The way they made Anna a national leader and a Mahatma and giving publicity to him every day, in the same way they made the of Lokpal Bill which was pending in the Parliament for more than forty years and which was drafted on the basis of recommendation Santhanam Committee for administrative reforms for removing maladministration and mismanagement in the government, as if it was drafted for ending corruption in the society or at least reducing corruption to more than sixty per cent. They further dramatized the situation by drafting another bill, calling it as Jan Lokpal Bill in place of the one drafted by the government by giving the Lokpal draconian powers saying that the Lokpal as drafted by the government was toothless lion forgetting the fact that in India giving more powers can be a source of further corruption and in spite of making provisions, it will be difficult to remove a person once appointed especially to a high post. They ignored or rather overlooked the fact that the creation of Lokpal was recommended especially to prevent corruption by Legislators and ministers as it was difficult to prosecute them if they indulged in corruption and that Lokpal is only a prosecutor to prosecute a corrupt government servant or official specially when the act does not make any changes in the anti corruption laws under which such officials are ultimately to be prosecuted in a court of law and still they misguide the people saying that if Jan Lokpal Bill is passed , it will remove at least 60% of the corruption from the society as if corruption is there in the society only because there is no such Jan Lokpal Act passed.
Many a time people ask me when I ridicule the Jan Lokpal Bill, to suggest other ways if passing of Lokpal Bill is not the answer to Corruption. The fact is that corruption is a social problem and like other social problems such as farmers’ suicides or communal riots it cannot be solved only by making laws such as for example Prevention of Suicide Act or Communal Violence Act. It should be solved by studying the problem in depth, finding out the cause and the appropriate remedy. In case of corruption people would not like to pay bribe for the fun of it. They would like to get their work in time and not waste their time unnecessarily. And when it is not done they pay the bribe to get the work done in time. This can be avoided by fixing responsibility and accountability for not doing the work within a certain time. Of course there is Right of Information Act to find out discrimination. If this is done most of the complaints will be solved. I don’t think that any social worker will be so naïve as not to know this unless he is motivated by some other consideration. I think Anna has failed miserably to see the real intentions of his team or this gang of four and blindly following their advice, happy to see his name and photo everyday in the news papers and media; I only feel sorry for him.
– OE News Bureau
OpinionExpress.In
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