How the Congress killed the Anna Hazare movement

Anna Hazare’s popular movement against corruption is being slow-bled to death. Slowly but steadily, the Congress has killed a dream that resonated with millions of Indians for a powerful Lokpal institution that, they hoped, would act as an alternative power centre and deter corruption. After first co-opting Team Anna onto the committee to draft the Lokpal Bill, the Congress-led government has, from all accounts, effectively swept aside all the key provisions put forward by Hazare and his fellow-crusaders. These provisions are, it’s fair to say, what will make the difference between an effective Lokpal with investigation and prosecution powers (as envisaged by Team Anna’s brains trust) – and a toothless, proforma body that will serve little purpose but to show some sense of “activity” without “action”. [caption id=“attachment_22573” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement is at risk of being     side-swiped. Reuters”]  [/caption] The Congress has deployed many weapons in its effort to kill Anna Hazare’s movement: but its latest – to summon an all-party meeting to discuss the draft Lokpal Bill – may be the final nail in that coffin. An all-party meeting will play right by the playbook of political procrastination: pretend to “widen” the consultation process, make a pig’s breakfast of it by adding layer after confusing layer to it, and capitalise on the fact that even the Opposition has been artless in its articulation of support for the Lokpal institution. Even the BJP seems conflicted on whether it would like to see the Prime Minister and the higher judiciary brought under the ambit of the Lokpal institution. Indian Express reports that the party is “recalibrating” its earlier stance – made know when A.B. Vajpayee was Prime Minister – that the highest political office in India be brought under the Lokpal’s scanner. “Similarly, many BJP leaders are learnt to be in agreement with the government over the exclusion of the higher judiciary from Lokpal’s purview. An all-party meeting could bring such a dilemma out in the open and pit the Opposition party against the civil society,” the report adds. In the absence of concerted Opposition support for a powerful Lokpal, the Congress stratagem to reduce the institution to an enfeebled body with limited jurisdiction will likely get a free pass. In its endeavour to deflate Anna Hazare’s movement, the Congress has several other handmaidens working in tandem. The latest of these is the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI). The Times of India reports that the agency has waded into the arena with a copycat version of the government’s draft of the Lokpal Bill. The report notes: “In contrast to Team Anna’s vision of the Lokpal that is supposed to be a multi-layered structure dealing with corruption at all levels, the draft Lokpal bill being prepared by the NCPRI restricts itself to corruption only at the highest level in sync with the views expressed by the government.” Reflecting the government’s thought process, the NCPRI too holds that that the higher judiciary should be exempt from the Lokpal’s purview. It suggests instead that the higher judiciary should be dealt with in the judicial accountability bill. Simultaneously,  differences of opinion on the strategy going forward appear to wrack Team Anna. While Anna Hazare has signalled his intention to go on a fast from August 16 if  the government doesn’t incorporate his team’s suggestions for a strong Lokpal, Santosh Hegde, who is one of the members of the drafting committee, has broken ranks with him. “I don’t think Annaji should go on fast this time… I would suggest that he undertake a tour of this country… We need to inform rather than threaten if an effective mechanism is not put in place,” Hegde told the Indian Express. Although Hegde caveated his comments by emphasising that “there is no rift” withinTeam Anna’s ranks and that he had “written to Anna Hazare saying I am not walking out of the committee,” the very fact that he had to hold out these assurances points to the fact that Hazare’s team is losing out on the “disinformation war”. Where once the Anna Hazare movement inspired millions of Indians, there is today only a growing sense of despondency. The Dirty Tricks department of the Congress has much to gloat over.