Politics Corruption and the Lokpal

Corruption is a household word now, thanks to Anna Hazare and his crusade against Corruption. Every responsible citizen is proud of it, especially given the fact that the campaign is apolitical in nature.

One major rationale for which it got overwhelming response was that it stayed away from politics. The question that I am asking is that can such a mass movement, which is extremely hopeful in causing various changes, can ever be non-political?

Accept a few facts: when the word government comes in Indian Democracy, it has to have a political connection. Ultimately the government is formed and ruled by a political party/coalition, whose prima facie aim is to remain intact in power as long as possible. Every government’s decision, directly or indirectly has to have a political motive; and so is the response of the government towards Anna Hazare’s movement.

The UPA II has been a disaster. All their misdoings are coming out, and the nation is flooded with scams and frauds: an irreversible blot on their image. What could have perhaps saved their face was that the people should be convinced that the scams and frauds unearthed are due to coalition compulsions (see: A. Raja and Sharad Pawar) and the corrupt have been punished (A. Chavan vacated his position and Kalmadi et al. were sacked). However this would never recreate their depraved image. They needed to prove the crowd that top brass is working towards eliminating corruption from the country and that they are dead serious about it.

And, Anna Hazare’s movement couldn’t have come at a better time for the UPA-II. The success of the movement was forthcoming…

Its success gives the UPA a chance to prove to the public the following things:

i) UPA is very serious in tackling corruption

ii) Remember the posters, “Manmohan, Vote chahiye? Toh LokPal lao…” Well an affirmative response to this will be “Manmohan ne Lokpal laya, ab usko vote doh”

iii) Surprisingly the UPA biased News Channels like the Times Now and NDTV sought its extensive coverage, something which I would have found impossible to believe, unless something was fishy!

iv) In 90 hours or so, a solution was formulated and now a lokpal bill will be under construction, without any major roadblocks. Major I meant by ignoring the Digvijay Singh factor, he is always used as a controversy creator, no wonder he is the General Secretary of the Congress (which indeed is a very high position).

v) Kapil Sibal was bought into the contention. After the 2G scam, he was successfully able to divert the blame of the mistakes done by the PM’s Office towards Raja, and at one point even claimed that no loss had been incurred to the exchequer! He is a vile and equally shrewd contriver, and also a salvaging face of the post-corruption UPA-II. His choice of jumping in the Lokpal movement was obvious.

There may be innumerous other reasons why this movement was indirectly beneficial to the Congress. But the main threat which loomed over the UPA was that of the Opposition Party i.e. the BJP and others. It feared that an anti-corruption tirade like this would cause irreversible political damage to them. Since the movement explicitly excluded the BJP, this threat was at abeyance. However keeping non-political bodies like the RSS and others raised a few eyebrows.

By the points expounded above I by no way try to defame the movement, perhaps Anna Hazare won’t be even thinking on these lines, but the fact that the tirade against corruption got unprecedented response from the political faction was not something startling. Perhaps this movement could reap long terms benefit to the UPA rather than facing the wrath of frustrated Indians.

A common Indian’s mentality about politics is that of a cynic. Every person directly or indirectly associated with politics is type casted to be a greedy voracious money laundering incarnation of a devil. I don’t intend to argue with it, nor do I beg to differ. However the non-political angle given to this movement could be beneficial to the government in two ways: first is that the Congress Party would not come into the fray as Anna’s generalization “Sab ek jaisa hai” and second thing is that the same UPA now has a point to tell their voters that what could not be done in decades we could do in a few months time. The later a great vote gathering point and these by-elections will be testimony to the implausible politics played by the Congress Party. Beware!

Jai Hind!