For a movement that demanded more transparency and accountability in public life, the Anna Hazare crusade is showing some strongly anti-democratic tendencies. Key members are locked in disputes and finger-pointing for airing
their views on all kinds of issues in public. After Prashant Bhushan regrettably got beaten up for endorsing a plebiscite in Kashmir, instead of tea and sympathy he got a rap on the knuckles from Hazare while Arvind Kejriwal’s declamation that the messiah from Ralegaon was higher than the Constitution has irked Justice Santosh Hegde no end. The central issue of the Jan Lokpal Bill has apparently faded from the foreground.
It had to happen. As long as the battle was for one key demand people with disparate views were ready to come together and speak in (more or less) one voice. But, having won the battle on the airwaves and social media sites, the contradictions were bound to show. Each one has a different worldview and a separate agenda. Sometimes it appears that they also nurse political ambitions; why else wade into the Hisar byelection?
Team Anna is now beginning to resemble the politburos of communist parties of yore, when straying out of line was very dangerous. That doesn’t look too liberal and makes us wonder what kind of Lokpal these crusaders want to set up. In Hazare’s own village, those who stray from the path of purity — tipplers, for instance — laid down by the man himself are whipped with belts. Team Anna’s recalcitrant members should thank their stars this has not happened to them so far.