Anna Hazaare And The Politics

Now they are about to plunge into politics. The anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare and its team—not shedding their demand for Janlokpal has decided to run on the roads to the Parliament.

Putting an end to the 9 day long fast, team anna said that to fight with the current corrupt political system it became imperative to enter politics only. On the public demand- they said, they had decided to give a political alternative to the people of India. There’s nothing wrong in that because even Chanakya had to christen Chandragupta Maurya to topple down the corrupt Nand regime of Magadha in the older days. But his team actually is able to provide a political alternative to the people of India wears a big question mark itself.

If we look at the members of team Anna  they bear rather contradictory thoughts. Only recently when one member lashes out at the media for the bad coverage of their agitation the other one in no time apologizes for the action. This is just an example. The members indeed lack unity, unanimity and hardly appear consistent with their own words.

As the rituals of politics in india goes secularism is the most sought after drape that every political party loves to get decked themselves in and if team anna joins the hoard definitely the other already existent parties in toe are going to put them on the scale of secularism while counting the number of Dalit and minorities in their party and very appropriately help the issue of corruption and janalokpal be sweeping under the carpet. Unfortunately team anna is also not untouched of this secular flavour as on 28 august 2011 Anna Hazare broke his fast with the words like ‘taking the juice from a dalit girl!’ Was it necessary to point the child as a dalit? Shouldn’t an indian be seen as an indian only? To play the vote bank politics politicians keep dividing the nation with the axe of secularism. But here Anna Hazare and his team shouldn’t forget that the common man only sees them as an alleviator of all of their woes. To their support base—the intellectual middle class-------- the issue of cast and sect hardly matters and if the team also resorts to any such petty means to contest an election not only the cause for which they are fighting is going to lose its color but people also definitely not going to endorse these gestures.

They say they will support those who are honest in character but what is the guarantee that the person who claims to be honest today won’t go corrupt in the future? What is the guarantee that the person who claims to be the supporter of this anti-graft movement is not corrupt himself in social life?

Moreover the movement of Anna hazare doesn’t have a mass reach and it’s a fact! All that support in millions the team anna claims to have, restricted to urban tech-savvy middle class only. Their movement has only been confined to the means of mobiles, internet and other electronic media. The remote area that is Bharat is still ignorant of any such turbulence from the jantar mantar or ram lila maidan. As J P movement in 70s captured the remotest corner of the country,the mass hysteria that the movement generated brought all the aggrieved public, irrespective of ones cast, creed or party under one single umbrella of the Janata Pparty and with the whopping support did manage to shatter the Indira Gandhi regime. It was the united opposition that led to the fall of reign of congress. But this time around the point of concern is the presence of too many singers singing the same tune but in a different row! Yes, its not only the Anna Hazare and its team who claims to be providing an alternative against the current  political parties but there are others too in parallel like Baba Ramdev who runs his own movement under his own party although addressing the same cause of corruption, some political parties too irrespective of these movements do manage to retain their hold among their favorites and will most probably try to cash in on the ongoing anti-graft mood. Certainly, there are too many alternatives-setting the same note but not in union-only to let the voters get confused as to whom to vote to alley their woes. Apparently these alternatives seems to collide with each other only and whether this collision of alternatives defuse the anti-graft show or dismantle the corrupt ---only time will tell!