Mismanagement of ‘Unprecedented Public Movement’

One of my friends has an interesting observation to make. Interesting because somewhere his statement mirrors a dimension of plethora of issues staring the Congress in the face. He says ‘Sibbal & Chidambaram create problems, Pranab Mukherjee solves them and mostly Rahul Gandhi takes the credit!’

Now this time around to handle the mess resulted from mismanagement of ‘Anna Movement’, the Harvard educated lawyers’ duo of Sibbal and Chidambaram was out of the picture. Although these very two leaders ‘bungled’ in the first place.

            

Sibbal almost alienated the masses from the Congress in the way he negotiated with Team Anna after April 2011. With his ‘I-know-it-better’ attitude and arrogance, he ultimately made sure that Anna Hazare was more resolute than ever on and after 16^th August.

Chidambaram made monumental blunder of first equating Ramdev Baba with Anna Hazare and then arresting the Gandhian leader and then forced to release. He thought he will get away, claiming Delhi’s Commissioner of Police was the decision maker! That trip of Anna Hazare to and from Tihar was a catalyst to galvanize the nation in support of the peaceful protest and the fast.  

The senior-most trouble shooter, another lawyer from Calcutta, Pranab Mukherjee was entrusted to solve the logjam. Many believe he came to the rescue after intervention by Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh.

Meanwhile PM-in-waiting Rahul Gandhi wasted another opportunity to rise to the situation and be true leader. Invariably he participates only when situations are not the most challenging; his interventions are mostly carefully choreographed and ceremonial.    

Apathy of Congress towards Maharashtrian Leaders notwithstanding, the Prime Minister had to rope-in another lawyer, Vilasrao Deshmukh to settle the matter with Anna, on the advice from Sharad Pawar.        

All along Congress leaders undermined the situation as a procedural issue to work on the Lokpal Bill. However it was a political issue and required fine-tuning on the negotiations.  The fall-out was much bigger to cope up.    

Political astuteness of Anna Hazare outmaneuvered the entire Congress grouping of leaders. BJP supported the movement in order to make the most of it.  

The spin masters of Congress tried to portray this movement as ‘a threat to the supremacy of the Parliament.’ It was unnecessary; Anna Hazare did not aim to weaken the ‘Parliamentary Democracy.’ 

What the movement has achieved is enormous change in the way people participate in democracy and the belief that ‘we can be part of the lawmaking and administration; our voice will be heard’. The Members of Parliament have to listen, they want to be re-elected!  

The message is loud and clear for the entire political class. ‘Listen & Perform or Perish.’                   

       

Anna Hazare, Congress and ‘Fast' Uprising

Another fast, another upsurge in the popular sentiment against corruption! Aided by almost 24*7 ‘live telecast’ on umpteen numbers of TV channels. Catalyzed by unforeseen public support to a 74-year old ex-army Gandhian activist, Kisan Baburao alias Anna Hazare.

It is all unprecedented, indeed. The kind of participation by public at large is unseen and unheard of, at -least in last two decades, if not after 75-77 JP movement.  

Congress in its true over confident way first tried to blacken the face of the movement with its amateurish first time MP and spokesperson Manish Tewari calling Anna Hazare, an epitome of corruption from head-to-toe! Some Congress members invented the eternal 'foreign hand' in this movement, hinting at support by US!

Going by the way, Congress leaders are commenting, one feels sometime soon, people will pick them all and dump them in a mental hospital. The statements made by Sibbal, Chidambaram and others backfired. All along the Government and the Congress leaders under estimated the public response.

The next blunder was to arrest Anna Hazare in the early hours and putting him in Tihar! He was awarded a judicial custody of 14 days. Apparently Anna was a threat to the society and in few hours the u-turn followed!  

However, Anna Hazare proved to be far more shrewd and intelligent. His rustic common sense and political moves outmaneuvered the entire ruling class. He not only got all his demands met, he went out of Tihar, when he wanted, to a grand welcome by thousands of people.

At the moment this is a week, since he started his fast. All the eyes are glued to TV to see what happens next.

Congress is almost clueless except for some sort of back channel talks by a senior Maharashtra Government official and Bhayuu Maharaj, Indore based spiritual Guru, who is close to all major political players in Maharashtra.

Today the situation is such that people will do what Anna Hazare says. India did not have ‘moral and popular’ leadership in last so many years. The momentum must not fizzle out. However what I feel is far more important is that Anna has a historic opportunity to seize.

He can actually tell people to observe honesty and sincerity in their day-to-day life. He can call on people not to give the bribe in the first place.  And howsoever all love to hate political methods; he can tell people to vote and elect honest people! Now this is a tall order.