'Mere paas Sonia hai': Why NAC scores over Team Anna

The irony is too stark to miss. On Wednesday, the Sonia Gandhi-led NAC approved and finalised drafts for two of the most path-breaking legislations of UPA 2, the Food Security Bill and the Communal Violence Bill. Next the drafts will be examined by the government and tabled in Parliament’s monsoon session for approval and passage. [caption id=“attachment_29760” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Anna Hazare with Kiran Bedi during a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday. Subhav Shukla/PTI “] [/caption] It’s unlikely the government will dare attempt major changes in the draft proposal which carry the weight of the UPA chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, and her high-powered NAC comprising eminent civil society members. The bills will raise a lot of heat and din in Parliament. Especially the draft Communal Violence Bill which has come under attack by the principal opposition BJP as well as a section of the media for its polarising, political pandering to the minorities character. But one can safely assume that the government will go out of its way to defend the NAC-approved draft. Contrast this with the fate of the other civil society group popularly referred to as Team Anna. Two fasts and several weeks of protracted and often acrimonious negotiations with the government which lasted nine agonising rounds, Team Anna is back to square one. On Wednesday evening, members of the Team Anna – the memory of the huge popular support they got for their anti-corruption campaign just two months back still fresh—were reduced to pleading before journalists to support their cause and save the Jan Lokpal Bill from becoming a toothless tiger. Arvind Kejriwal summed up the contrast between team Anna and NAC best, when he said the difference is “they (NAC) have Sonia.” Rings a bell? Somehow Kejriwal’s lament reminded me of the famous Salim Javed line from Deewar when Shashi Kapoor silences a raving and ranting Amitabh by saying “mere paas maa hai”. So while one saw NAC members like Harsh Mander giving an elaborate explanation on the Food Security Bill and the Communal Violence Bill draft proposals in TV interviews on Wednesday—modestly smug in the knowledge that their drafts would only encounter cosmetic amendments at the level of the government— Team Anna, on the other hand, was engaged in a valiant but increasingly desperate rearguard action to save the Jan Lokpal Bill from becoming an ineffective and inconsequential piece of legislation. For all their dash, charisma, mass appeal and angry young men persona, Team Anna is fighting with its back to the wall. They may get all the applause, whistles, cat calls and even sympathy, but somewhere along the way they may have lost the plot. And the battle. For they could not ensure the support of Queen Mother!