The unholy nexus of 'Anti-Team Anna' between the political establishment and compliant sections of the media and civil society, choreographed by a cabal of government minions, will have ever-fewer places to hide
Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement will enter a decisive phase as the Lokpal Bill is examined threadbare by the 31-member parliamentary standing committee.
And yet, influential sections of the media and civil society – unable in all good conscience, to criticize the crusade against corruption itself – continue to cavil at its “methods”.
Unconstitutional… Subversion of parliament… A threat to democracy. It would be difficult to imagine a more thoughtless line of argument.
Who subverts parliament? Those politicians who give candidates with criminal records tickets to contest elections – or Anna Hazare who exposes the corrupt practices which allow such criminality?
What is unconstitutional? Interfering with the CBI’s investigations, as the government habitually does – or proposing, as Anna has, that the CBI be made autonomous?
Which is a threat to democracy? A smear campaign, with doctored CDs against civil society activists by apologists of the government or Anna’s campaign for an effective anti-corruption mechanism?
Why do we fall for this chicanery? Several of Anna’s suggestions to build a new architecture of good governance through a strong Lokpal Bill need to be modified. But without his campaign, an anti-corruption law would not even be on this government’s parliamentary agenda.
More pertinently, why do so many otherwise intelligent members of civil society and the media get it so wrong? Ignorance is clearly not the only reason. The answer is more sinister: The unholy nexus between the political establishment and compliant sections of the media and civil society, choreographed by a cabal of government minions. An elementary application of mind reveals who is subverting our democracy, misusing parliamentary privilege and behaving unconstitutionally.
Are all politicians complicit in nurturing this nexus? No. There are degrees of separation. As Anna Hazare in his earthily brutal way said, the Congress has a PhD in corruption (and, I would add, in preserving poverty for over six decades as well) while the BJP is a mere graduate (and, again I would add, learning fast).
For every Yeddyurappa, the Congress has 10 Kalmadis. Its expertise in corruption stretches back to the ’70s (which led to JP’s movement and, in response, the Emergency), straddles the ’80s and ’90s (Bofors, HDW submarines) and reaches a climax in the first decade of this century with the 2G spectrum, CWG and other gargantuan scams.
It is this untrammeled, brazen corruption that has allowed Anna to tap into popular anger. His genius has been to turn that anger into a movement which, when brought to a logical conclusion, will mitigate (not eliminate, as critics misleadingly imply) corruption.
Look at the myths and disinformation the critics of Anna disseminate and then cynically demolish.
Myth 1: The Lokpal Bill is a panacea to end all corruption. Of course it isn’t and was never meant to be. It is only the first step in a process that includes panoply of judicial, electoral and police reforms. Anna never speaks of the Lokpal being a magic wand. Politicians and their media handmaidens do.
Myth 2: The Lokpal will be an unaccountable monolith, a monstrous bureaucracy. Some deliberately refer to the Lokpal as “him” (the legislation will give “him” too much power). The Lokpal – once the draft Bill is modified by the parliamentary standing committee and then by parliament itself in consultation with various civil society inputs – will in fact be a 9-member bench with lean, taut administrative and investigative machinery. And unaccountable? Nonsense. The Lokpal will be subject to the jurisdiction of the High Courts and the Supreme Court as well as an independent internal complaints redressal mechanism. Hardly unaccountable, monolithic bureaucracy.
Myth 3: The Lokpal will have too much power. Yes, it will have salutary and necessary power over corrupt public servants who today are virtually immune to prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act, unlike ordinary citizens like you and me who pay these public servants’ salaries. But its power will be limited by the judicial checks and balances built into the Lokpal structure. A newly empowered Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), a proactive Election Commission (EC), an autonomous Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and a proposed National Judicial Commission (NJC) to police the higher judiciary form an interlocked grid of institutions independent of the government of the day which – along with the Lokpal – will codify governance reforms that serve the public interest, not private interests.
Myth 4: Anna is a media-driven phenomenon. Nonsense again. I challenge a Congress or a BJP MP to sit on a fast over a public interest cause anywhere outside their pocket borough-constituency and draw a crowd of more than 50 people around them.
If the critics of Anna, as he prepares for the next phase of his reformist campaign, still don’t get it by then, they will have ever-fewer places to hide.
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