What Anna Hazare Has Achieved

The last one week has witnessed several developments including the campaign for elections to five State Assemblies and quite substantial polling in four of the five States. But it is the success of Gandhian social activist Anna Hazare’s crusade against corruption that has hogged the headlines. On receiving a Government of India gazette notification regarding the constitution of a joint committee comprising members from the government and civil society for preparetion of the draft Lokpal Bill, Anna broke his indefinite fast last Saturday (April 9) but not before he had offered juice to all those who were on hunger strike in solidarity with him. There were rapturous scenes at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, the venue of the fast and celebrations instantly broke out in the Capital and across the country among the countless people who had gathered in various places in support of the anti-graft struggle. Indeed the all-out mass response to Anna’s crusade was literally unprecedented in recent times and the spontaneous participation of the youth in this mass movement was most striking, to say the least. The outcome of networking conducted by the distinguished Right to Information activist, Arvind Kejriwal, was visible before one’s very eyes.

As far as the UPA Government was concerned, it initially sought to ignore the Anna phenomenon but when it found on close scrutiny that the movement was snowballing into a veritable mass upsurge, it could not but launch the exercise of reaching a compromise.

Despite the initial feet-dragging the government eventually did what was expected of it—hold negotiations with Anna’s team. Obviously due to Sonia Gandhi’s intervention. Because the body language of others, notably Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, was different. In the Finance Minister’s explanatory statement on the issue, the sense of urgency to enact the Lokpal legislation was completely missing—for him it was business as usual. But Sonia understood that procrastination by the ruling dispensation over the matter would be most damaging for the Congress in particular what with the unearthing of a series of scams in which several leading lights of the principal ruling party and its allies in the UPA have been directly implicated.

On the other side the civil society members backing Anna Hazare did not display any rigid approach. Initially they wanted Anna to lead the joint panel. When the government refused to accept the proposal they agreed to the idea of co-chairmen. That was indicative of their flexibility. In return the government finally acceded to their demand for an official notification of the joint panel. Now the joint panel is to be headed by both Pranab Mukherjee (from the government side) and Shanti Bhushan (from the side of the civil society), and Anna will be a member of the panel.

However, the government’s drafting of the news of the joint panel was not what one had anticipated. Pranab has been described as the chairman and Shanti Bhushan the co-chairman of the joint panel, whereas in reality both are co-chairmen. The effort is to place Pranab on a pedestal higher than that of Shanti Bhushan. But the civil society activists are not making this an issue. That is because they want to get the ball rolling so that the draft is prepared at the earliest for presenting it to Parliament. It is also noteworthy that the symbol of probity in public life in the UPA Government—Defence Minister A.K. Antony—is not in the panel. This too has not provoked any criticism from the civil society activists. For them the primary task is to ensure that a strong and effective Lokpal is in place as soon as possible. So they are not in favour of any wastage of time.

Meanwhile all kinds of attempts are on to discredit the Anna Hazare movement. Swami Ramdev’s comments on the panel members from the civil society side led to certain complications which have now been removed. Anna Hazare’s own observations on Gujarat were highlighted to sow the seeds of discord. That problem too has been sorted out with Anna’s own clarifications. Of course, there would be differences among members of the civil society (and some views at variance with the Gandhian social activist’s anti-graft struggle have been carried in this issue of our journal)—after all, these are a manifestation of democratic functioning. But what cannot be denied is the civil society activists’ urge for raising the fight against corruption to a higher level, about which politicians of all hues have seldom shed their indifference

Now the government’s seriousness in strengthening the power of the ombudsman (Lokpal) so as to make it effective in the anti-corruption drive will be tested. What Anna Hazare has achieved is to unleash a movement capable of enhancing the people’s vigil over the government’s functioning. Don’t we all know that eternal vigil is the price of liberty?

Those who wittingly or unwittingly gloss over this essence of Anna Hazare’s crusade are either being naive or acting at the behest of the vested interests.

However, the struggle has just begun. We have miles to go. So there is no question of slackening our resolve which in fact needs to be renewed today as we observe the 120th birth anniversary of the architect of our Constitution, Babasaheb Dr B.R. Ambedkar. For this movement is intended to reinforce the Constitution in order to enable it to become meaningful for our teeming millions.

April 14 S.C.