Anna, don’t diminish yourself, keep off politics please

Anna Hazare is not playing politics; he’s being what he is. That has been the public perception since the Gandhian took centre-stage in the anti-corruption crusade initiated by lesser mortals in civil society. It still holds strong. That’s perhaps why his movement and adulation for the man himself have not petered out so far. We live in fickle times where attention spans change with the news cycle and its no small feat to remain fresh in public memory for this long.

The biggest reason could be that Anna has managed to stay apolitical. Attempts to paint him in political colours have not succeeded so far. But as he engages more with political parties by way of either confrontation or cooperation, would it be possible for him to stay the way he is? The success and longevity of the movement and the aura of Anna himself would depend a lot on how the answer plays out.

Mohan Bhagwat, chief of RSS, has claimed that the organisation actively backed Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption crusade. The CPI’s national secretary, D Raja, is clear that the Gandhian, by design or default, is secretly helping the BJP. Hazare himself has announced that he would actively campaign against the Congress unless he was given a written assurance that it would support the Jan Lokpal Bill. He has been uncritical of the BJP, barring a stray statement here and there against the party. The Congress feels aggrieved, understandably so.

It does not matter. Anna’s intention does not appear suspect. Moreover, he cannot be expected to be counting the number of verbal punches he delivers at parties and share it equally among all. But his statements aimed at political parties could be flawed from the point of view of strategy and damaging to the movement.

What, for instance, if people voted for and elected the same candidates Anna had advised people not to vote? In Hissar, which is going for a bypoll on 13 October, Anna has already announced that he won’t support the Congress. This is because the party does not support the Jan Lokpal Bill of Team Anna. If the voters still prefer to vote for the Congress candidate, it could be a loss of face for Anna.

If the trend continues in the assembly polls in states, it could be a blow to the credibility of Anna and to his universal acceptability. He won’t be taken seriously by politicians and parties after that. The anti-corruption movement would lose much of its power to drive a hard bargain. The exercise would end up, without intending to be so, a test of Anna’s clout. Perhaps, this was avoidable.

Another aspect of Team Anna’s exercise is equally beguiling. The inherent assumption in it, or the message the team wants to send across, is whoever supports the Jan Lokpal Bill is not corrupt. That could be dangerous. First, it makes Team Anna the judge and jury in deciding who’s corrupt; second, it loads a few contestants with unfair advantage; and third, it lets some corrupt candidates slip through and obtain the halo of the honest.

Team Anna could be mixing up things here. It is aiming at political reforms to weed out corrupt candidates, but in effect it is backing some people with poor credentials. That it might end up getting targeted by some parties is a minor issue, but the bigger one is it might be forced to defend its choice now.

“I do not think he has any clarity. I do not know who are the people advising him,” D Raja said about Anna. It appears to an be apt assessment. Team Anna is still in the ‘our Lokpal or no Lokpal’ frame of mind and it refuses to accept that Parliament could still produce a solution acceptable to all. It could be inviting a backlash by taking street politics too far.

Should Anna and his team be embroiled in politics so much? The answer is a clear no. It would be counterproductive in the end and diminish the strength of the movement. Anna should not be a political entity. He is okay the way he is.

Watch Anna’s video on anti-corruption