Finally, Anna Hazare ended his fast, and ‘victory’ was celebrated. Though ‘victory’ may be stretching a non-binding parliamentary resolution too far, the first of many battles has been won – a lot of us were stirred and made to think and take some symbolic action. It was amazing to see an old-school Gandhian take up an issue and risk his life to see it through. Without this effort, no one would be even talking about this.
One thing is clear that a healthy democracy is hard to come by. However rosier it sounds when compared with an autocracy or a colony, it is not easy to practice. It takes everyone to play a role: citizens, press, houses of parliament, executive, judiciary, police – everyone. You cannot ignore your role for decades and then suddenly wake up, and since the situation is really bad, justify an extreme solution. A solution which fails to attack the roots of the problem, fails to be a long-term solution. Moreover, it may create an impression of a ‘victory’, while all it has offered is a superficial, temporary patch-up.
Going back to what I wrote in April, many questions remain unanswered. It would serve us well to not forget them.
Some notable comments included how ‘Team Anna’ is ‘using’ the media – kudos to them! I do not see what is wrong with a social movement using media to its fullest advantage. Though there could still be a debate whether Anna Hazare’s methods were democratic, the lawyer in Pranab Mukherjee was suddenly reminded of the laws of the land and warned Anna against breaking them. As ‘Team Anna’ argued for details like bringing the PM under the purview of Lokpal, some editorials and blogs tried to take a 30,000-feet view and argued against the whole idea – though varying in their style and argument (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.) Arundhati Roy picked up her pen to write against Lokpal, and took it one step too far as she proposed a conspiracy theory. The editor of the Open Magazine tried to focus on Anna’s personality and his past, and reminded me of the ‘you-cannot-lynch-the-‘sinner’-if-you-are-not-pure’ story. While Kiran Bedi and Ramachandra Guha briefly talked about deteriorating state of the democracy over many decades, most shied away from speaking about it. Karan Thapar tried taking a high intellectual ground by stating that people would find it difficult to understand his stand (if only there was one!) and talking about age-old points and details in the bill in a fluffy language. Nandan Nilekani took a balanced stand – and then lost ground by saying his admiration for politicians has gone up. Well, he did state that Lokpal can be just one of many solutions, if at all. More than admitting the roots of the problem and attacking the government that it has now lost the moral high ground to claim the supremacy of the parliament, Dr. Abhay Bang suggested a few solutions like decentralization of power. As I continued to search for more discussion of the very idea of Lokpal – the philosophy and ideology, and not just the details of the bill (which can be continually improved) – the website dedicated to the movement (IndiaAgainstCorruption.org) failed to help. Then I turned to Arvind Kejriwal – the young, dynamic face of the anti-corruption movement, an ex-IRS officer, a Magsaysay Award Winner. His speech delivered at IIT Madras – just two weeks before Anna’s fast began – represents what is lacking in this ‘fight-against-corruption’.
He started out by quoting the Jan-Lokpal Bill as “Anna’s Lokpal Bill”; and that “people believe that whatever Anna is saying is right, and whatever the Government is saying is wrong.” I find this idol-centric view disturbing. Addressing the “why’s” of a Lokpal, all he did was to cash on people’s anger about the corruption and state how the current institutions – the CBIs, the CVCs – are not independent and powerful enough. (This should have been a clue!). He wants a Lokpal on the same lines of Hongkong’s ICAC. Anecdotes – that too from a different country in a different era – cannot be an argument. (Otherwise, what about Mao’s Red Brigade wiping out corruption once and for all? That didn’t work!).
Kejriwal argued for a watchdog over ALL of the bureaucracy – all 1.25 crore government employees. Not only that it is not practical, it is not how the system is supposed to work. We will end up creating another huge piece of bureaucracy and it cannot be a long-term solution.
While arguing to bring PM under Lokpal’s purview, Kejriwal said “I dread if tomorrow Madhu Koda becomes PM” and “the security of the country will be in danger”. He went on to say how some 150 of our MPs had criminal charges against them. I expected – at the very least – an honest admission that it was us – the voters – who let such criminals be elected, but I was disappointed. Our MPs come from within us, and nowhere else. By voting irresponsibly or not voting at all, we let them get into the parliament. When will we realize that we are also at fault?
Then Kejriwal took up the argument against the claim that “Lokpal will be a parallel government”. To counter it, he gave examples of independent agencies (CAG, NHRC, CVC, CIC) and how they are not termed as parallel government, and said “why can’t we have one more independent agency?”. Just a few minutes back, he had argued for a Lokpal saying that there was no independent agency. If we do have so many agencies, it is clear that we have failed to make them work. Maybe we should first work on making them independent and powerful.
Further, he tried to counter the point that “Lokpal is too powerful and will sit on everyone’s head.” He gave the example of how an ordinary income tax officer can check PM’s records and we don’t say “he sits on PM’s head”. Well, that officer has only that one power, nothing more. But the Lokpal is being given powers of the judiciary, the investigator, the police and the prosecutor! It IS too much power, and then it does come out as a parallel government.
I continued to listen to him only to be bombarded with more naïve points. He put forth a plan to “go to villages and educate them about the Jan-Lokpal Bill” – in 9 days flat! I wish it were that easy. The 9-day education was to be followed by 6 days of evening candle marches and mass-burning of government’s version of the bill. Nothing wrong, but nothing effective. He urged the audience to change the country – like Egyptians throwing off their government! I would like to understand how one can compare the two. When he appeals to everyone to take a week off for the country, I hope we do not forget the fight after that week is over. I do not see where the direction of this ‘movement’ is, who is providing the ideological leadership, what is the long term solution, and whether we are willing to accept the blame that we did not play our part in the democratic process.
Disturbingly, I am not imagining all of this. Kejriwal adds that ‘we cannot fail this time, we don’t know when we will get next chance – maybe after a few more decades’. To me, that is precisely the mistake. Democracy is a process, not a week-long fest. If we are going to continue not playing our role and hoping for another ‘Team Anna’ to take a stand after every few decades, we haven’t learned what democracy is.
Sadly, even this was not the most disturbing piece. Kejriwal, in the hottest part of his speech, put forth a plan for 15th of August – to switch off the lights for one hour, “because this independence and democracy have given us nothing but darkness!!”
Please take a moment to read that again. Does our generation even know how we achieved the independence? Do we even know the darkness that prevailed before the independence and democracy? And how entitled do we feel!! What did WE do to make this democracy successful? What did WE do to carry on the legacy of our freedom fighters? We have NO right to say that the independence gave us only darkness. We clearly do not understand our responsibilities. I am sad and concerned.
I hope we can still make it right.
Mandar Gadre.
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