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Bashing up Team Anna Who will gain?
In the popular Bollywood blockbuster ‘Sholay’, actor Dharmendra’s popular one liner ‘Is Kahani mein drama haen, emotion haen, tragedy haen (This story is full of drama, emotion and tragedy)’ seems to aptly fit the bill for Team Anna, otherwise credited for sparking off the Indian spring revolution against corruption just a few weeks back. On October 18th, 2011 in Lucknow, a sandal was hurled at the chief protagonist of Team Anna, Arvind Kejriwal. Less than a week before this, on October 12th, Prashant Bhushan, a noted lawyer in his own right, was violently attacked by the activists of a little known outfit known as
Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena in the Supreme Court premises in full view of a television crew. The reported allusion to Ram Sena, an alleged RSS associate body, too was named but the outfit has denied their involvement.On October 18th yet again, two key members of the core committee of Team Anna resigned charging Kejriwal, Anna Hazare’s chief strategist, of getting into ‘party politics’.
| “Those who are worried about their future once a strong Lokpal comes in place are attacking us on one pretext or another,” Arvind Kejriwald said. |
Around the same time, Congress crown prince Rahul Gandhi for the pen-ultimate time perhaps erred again and refused audience to the ‘Sarpanch’ of Ralegan Siddhi (Anna Hazare’s village) amid high drama of a total ‘mismanagement’ by the ‘RG Team’. Even a Congress cabinet minister later said, “By declining to meet the ‘Sarpanch’ from Anna’s village, our leader Rahul Gandhi has missed an opportunity”.
Notably, all this and more has taken place close on the heels of Congress losing out the Hisar Lok Sabha seat; which was described by the opposition parties and also anti-corruption crusader Anna himself as a referendum on the performance of the Manmohan Singh government – especially on the corruption front.
Thus, as stated earlier, we find all elements of a melodrama vis-à-vis the functioning of Team Anna and their future course of action and political campaign in the crucial assembly elections in UP and elsewhere.
On October 19th, Kejriwal attributed the attacks on himself and Prashant Bhushan as the work of corrupt politicians. “Those who are worried about their future once a strong Lokpal comes in place are attacking us on one pretext or another,” he said in Ayodhya.
The political fallout of the Anna - led stir could already be felt in the just held round of by - elections wherein Congress drew a blank. It did not have much to cherish as its ally NCP under Sharad Pawar lost an assembly seat in the backyards of Maharashtra. The enthusiastic BJP, basking in the glory of the Anna agitation and the simultaneous sharp decline in Congress popularity graph, hailed the verdict as “people’s victory against corrupt Congress”.
To top it all, Rahul Gandhi’s refusal to meet the ‘Sarpanch’ of Anna’s village, Jaisingh Mapari and Hazare’s personal secretary Suresh Pathare among others only resulted in curious signals. In between, the loose canon of Congress Digvijay Singh dashed off more than one letter to Anna accusing him of RSS connections. On his part, Anna has denied such a connection even though RSS leader Suresh Joshi maintained that Hazare’s complete distancing himself from the RSS would be erroneous. The drama would unfold further as the elections to five states Punjab, Manipur, Goa, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh to top it all draws nearer.
The purported division in Team Anna will only bring to light how the aging Gandhian will handle the ‘real political battle’ as his movement though apolitical has put the ruling Congress party in the dock; and done it quite convincingly.
It is needless to add that so much is the enthusiasm in the BJP camp due to the same that the party veteran L K Advani, though he was rejected in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, has started a nationwide ‘Yatra’ to reap the electoral benefits.
Team Anna’s game plan vis-à-vis elections is taken seriously even by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, who took the opportunity to field questions on these recent elections, far away in Pretoria in Brazil and said, “One by - election can not be considered a referendum on the performance of my government.”
| On October 12th, Prashant Bhushan was violently attacked by the activists of a little known outfit known as Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena in the Supreme Court premises in full view of a television crew. |
Just when the anti - Congress theme of Anna’s stir is seemingly becoming obvious, Hazare himself has clarified that if the government brings a strong Lokpal, there was no reason on why he should still oppose Congress. But the purported differences within Team Anna actually on different issues are coming to focus.
In a clear snub to his compatriot, Prashant Bhushan’s plebiscite line on Kashmir, Anna Hazare has rather taken a virtual ‘Sangh Parivar’ line - perhaps also unlike the Gandhian spirit of forgiveness - and said, “…. I am ready to take part in war against Pakistan.” In what is described as his disapproval of Bhushan’s line on plebiscite in Kashmir, Anna, a former military man, recently wrote in his blog: “Some people talk incoherently about Kashmir related issues ……… (but) Kashmir is an integral part of India and will remain so.”
Finally, all these areas that Anna Hazare, Rahul Gandhi or BJP are talking about are grey in nature - one can not find everything white or everything black. The goons in Delhi and Lucknow are wrong for trying to attack members of Team Anna.
Whether it is Team Anna or the likes of Rahul or Advani, all these men have to deal with the immense challenge of confronting the ‘compulsion’ to be right. The higher one’s standing is; the bigger is the stake.
Therefore, the coming weeks are going to be tough for Anna, Arvind Kejriwal, Rahul Gandhi and Advani; and it is needless to add that all of them have sleepless nights in store.
