The images were a brand manager’s happiest dream. A lone man, simple and ascetic looking, sitting quietly on the lawns of Rajghat, his eyes closed, seemingly meditating, lost to the world. Around him, hundreds of young and old people, looking at him in awe. Then, his various interviews, with homespun homilies and a note of defiance, beamed live to millions of viewers around the world, with a little help from 24/7 channels and YouTube. Most of all, his incarceration in Tihar Jail, currently home to many a suspected high-profile crook. It all helped consolidate Brand Anna and rally even more committed followers around him.
In the war of optics – an important battlefront in this day and age of hyper media – Anna Hazare completely trounced the government. Large government machineries are never nimble; there are too many layers to be consulted, too many factors to be considered, too many processes to be followed. In the case of Hazare’s crusade, the UPA’s top brains were caught completely flat-footed. First, they ignored the potential threat of his threat to fast from August 16; then they came up with some hare-brained solution of having him arrested because of some technical violation of crowd management; and finally, they took him to Tihar, which now holds business and political big-wigs arrested on corruption charges. Then finally, he was set free and allowed to go ahead with his fast, something that could have been permitted in the first place. Predictably, Hazare, knowing the value of sticking around in Tihar, refused to leave.
Poor tactical thinking has been the bane of the establishment’s responses to Hazare’s campaign right from the beginning. The first time round, in April, the government did not even bother to take notice of his fast on the question of the Lokpal Bill. But within a day of his sitting at Jantar Mantar, thousands of people had come out on the streets to support his cause. The response caught the government completely by surprise. It immediately capitulated, set up a joint committee to discuss the Bill and agreed to let five members of “civil society” become members, along with five government representatives. This was unprecedented. Never before has any NGO representative or private sector expert sat on such a committee. The government could legitimately say that it had taken a huge step forward.
But Hazare and his cohorts have consistently said they want all their demands met; in colloquial terms, this is the “my way or the highway” approach. They want their draft of the Jan Lokpal bill to be accepted in toto. This would mean the creation of a monster bureaucracy that will have the power to accuse, summon and (metaphorically) execute any one found “corrupt”. It can call for any file and interpret any notation in the way it wants to. It wants to be above the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary. Everyone from the prime minister to a lowly official would fall under its purview. Not even dictatorships and authoritarian governments have such an omnipotent body; in a democracy, where checks and balances are built into the constitution, a Lokpal such as this would be anathema. In any case, the government – and many experts – have pointed out that a draft is being considered by the standing committee in Parliament which consists of representatives from every party. Why not let it debate it? Hazare, by now riding the wave of support from the middle-classes, has replied with another fast.
This is an aspect that seems to have missed the new-born crusaders who have rallied to his side. The cause he has taken up – corruption – is unexceptional and there can be no one who would not want it eradicated. But as the prime minister says, there is no “magic wand” that can get rid of it. Even the Jan Lokpal, assuming it performs optimally, will not be able to tackle this monster, because the underlying systemic causes will not disappear. Dealing with corruption, petty and big-ticket, will be a slow painstaking process involving legal, electoral and social reform, making everyone accountable and imposing the law firmly and ensuring that potential bribe-takers (and importantly, givers) know that they will have to pay a heavy price if they indulge in the practice.
Besides, though the government’s version of the Bill may be weak, it has to go through the whole procedural cycle of discussion, consultation and legislation. The agitationists want none of that; there is a growing impatience with process. “Don’t give us committee this and article that,” a high-profile Anna-groupie said on television the other day. “We cannot go to a committee to find that our views are not taken on board.” But that is the consultative process; a modus vivendi is finally arrived at after all the backing and forthing politicians do. We may think that all politicians are venal and mendacious – a popular trope among the middle-classes – but they have to adhere to legislative procedures. Many have suggested that there is a disconnect between the aspirations of the urban middle-class and the old-fashioned political types. The former wants delivery of services and to see that their tax rupees are being used correctly. They chafe at having to pay speed money to clerks and get angry when they hear of politicians taking big bribes. That is indeed true, because the Indian today is not prepared to be taken for a ride by babus and netas.
Thus, while the cause itself may be worthwhile, the blackmailing tactics and the unwillingness to do the hard work of actually designing a legislation makes the crusade not only effete and credulous, but also suspect. At the same time, the government has to change its own approach; there seems to be zero political thinking in its responses. Attacking Hazare personally is not going to work. Most of all, the political class has to understand that there is real anger among the people; politicians as well as bureaucrats, big and small, have to change their ways. It will be a shame if, after all this, things go “back to normal” as far as corruption is concerned.