Anna's 'Corruption Bharat Chodo' is immature and missing the point

Expect more street shows, more drama and more made for the television action over the next few weeks over the Lokpal Bill. The ‘betrayed’ Team Anna has decided to stage a 1942 Quit India Movement redux on the streets of the country from 9 August to expose the cabinet’s ‘deceitful’ act of passing a softer Lokpal Bill. Between 9 August — it is the anniversary of the Quit India movement – and 16 August 16 — the day Anna Hazare goes on indefinite fast — it has lined up an array of mass mobilisation activities under the rather unimaginatively titled ‘Corruption Bharat Chhodo’ programme. As per the programme, there will be public tearing and burning of the government’s Lokpal bill. Between 1August  and 9 August people across India would be undertaking short and long padyatras as a mass contact initiative. During this period they will hold meetings, distribute pamphlets and show a film on the Jan Lokpal Bill. Between 9 August and 15 August, people in villages, towns or mohallas would go for prabhat pheri, singing patriotic songs and educating people about corruption. There would be candle light marches in the evening. On 15 August, Independence Day, people would switch off lights between 8 pm and 9 pm to mark their support for the movement against corruption. Hazare’s fast beginning on 16 August at Jantar Mantar would be the grand finale of the elaborate exercise. [caption id=“attachment_50513” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The ‘betrayed’ Team Anna has decided to stage a 1942 Quit India Movement redux on the streets of the country from 9 August. Reuters”]  [/caption] “It’s now or never. Anna’s fast from 16 August is our last hope. We can’t afford to fail this time. If we fail, we may never get another chance,” said Arvind Kejriwal, a member of Team Anna, adding, “It is more than evident that our government and all the political parties are unwilling to enact a strong law against corruption….There is a serious conflict of interest." There’s too much drama already. Kejriwal sought to add more to it by throwing in the confrontational note. He said the government says it would deal with Anna’s fast the same way it dealt with Baba Ramdev’s movement – crush it. “We are ready for that. We are ready to face their batons and bullets. But we will not move from there (Jantar Mantar, where Anna will fast)… The government can crush one Anna, but it won’t be able to crush 120 crore Annas,” he said. Good luck to him and his team. They will have the support and sympathy of the people but this time it would be more manufactured than spontaneous. As evident from the programme of action, Team Anna has not learnt much in the past three months and is bent on frittering away the goodwill it has accumulated through obstinate grandstanding on the serious issue of corruption. Yes, all Indians are worried about the rampant corruption around. Nobody wants the corrupt to go unpunished. Everyone wants a mechanism in place to prevent the menace.  But it’s not a government versus us issue, neither is it a people versus politician issue. Its import goes far beyond individual egos. By holding on to their self-righteous position Team Anna has managed to reduce a public cause into an unending farce. Baba Ramdev relied too much on theatrics to make his point; Anna and his supporters are headed the same way. The ‘Corruption Bharat Chhodo’ movement is too naïve an idea, if not ridiculous. It reflects the same simplistic understanding of the issue at hand and the unrealistic solutions as Ramdev’s Quixotic battle against black money and all the evils in the country. The protagonists in the drama are yet to accept the fact that corruption is not as easy a target as the Britishers were and protesting on the streets is not going to end it. It involves a large number of Indians spread across all strata of the society and is too deeply-entrenched to be uprooted by one single mighty heave. It has to be fought on several fronts and relentlessly. The problem with Team Anna is it has reduced what should be a multi-pronged battle to a single-point issue. And it is obsessively confrontational in its approach. Blame it on the craze for media attention or public adulation but this is not how tough battles are fought. It’s intriguing why the Prime Minister coming under the Lokpal should be such a huge ego issue for the civil society activists. Their rigidity on the higher judiciary coming under the ombudsman is baffling too. They should not look beyond the case of Karnataka Chief Minister Yeddyurappa to get a perspective. Lokayukta Santosh Hegde’s report on the Bellary mining scam has had its impact. He does not have sweeping powers to prosecute but what he managed within his powers is outstanding. A strong Lokpal with overwhelming powers is not what the country needs. It needs an institution that does what it is supposed to do. This itself would set right so many things in the country.