Anna’s long shadow on Red Fort

The shadow of Anna Hazare loomed large over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Independence Day speech. Though he did not mention him by name, Dr Singh’s concern over the anti-corruption campaign and his government was apparent. But, by holding out veiled threats against him and by trashing those who are rallying behind him, the cheerleaders of the government and the Congress Party are willy-nilly elevating Mr Hazare’s stature — perhaps to a position as high as that of Jayaprakash Narayan around whom the Right and the Left came together in the 1970s in the wake of the imposition of the Emergency.

The UPA government, which returned to power in May 2009 with a stronger mandate, and free of its dependence on the Left, has been in a state of atrophy in recent months. This is largely a consequence of the growing perception that the government is far from sincere about tackling corruption in high places. What has added to the unpopularity of the government has been its inability to control inflation in general and food prices in particular. Compounding its problems has been the slowdown in the economy and a hostile international economic environment.
The anger and outrage of large sections of the population about corruption, inevitably articulated by a stridently vocal section of the middle classes in urban areas, has found expression and empathy in the support and solidarity being given to certain representatives of civil society. Nature abhors vacuum. The vacuum that has been caused by the weakness of the political Opposition on the Right as well as the Left is being filled up in this unexpected manner. At a loss to counter this upsurge in popular resentment, the government and the ruling party is stooping low and thereby, unwittingly, exposing the chinks in its armour.
First, the attack by Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh — with more than a little help from former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and his expertise in the area of disclosure of tapped phone conversations — focussed on Shanti Bhushan’s properties. The powers-that-be presumed that they had succeeded in raising doubts about the credibility of the Bhushan father-son duo. Subsequently, the fine print of the reports of the commission of inquiry headed by Justice P.B. Sawant on various trusts controlled by Mr Hazare and his supporters was resurrected to claim that he was “neck-deep” in corruption. (Baba Ramdev, with his many companies and his aide whose nationality was questioned, turned out to be a relatively easier target.)
Thereafter, the attacks have become more acrimonious, revealing a certain degree of desperation. On Sunday, the ruling party claimed Mr Hazare was suffering from “grandeurisation” which is supposed to be a combination of delusions of grandeur and grandstanding. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari described the group around Mr Hazare as a “conglomeration of armchair fascists, closet anarchists and overground Maoists funded by invisible donors”. Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal added: “His attack on the PM is unlike a Gandhian. A fast is meant for personal purification and not publicity”.
The Congress and the government would have been better off if their spokespersons had been more temperate in their language and not put spokes in the wheel of a peaceful agitation. By their counter-attacks, they are making Mr Hazare a superstar which he is not. One may have a lot of quibbles with his views and with the Jan Lokpal Bill which is certainly no quick-fix solution to curb corruption in the country. The Prime Minister is right. There is indeed no magic wand either to contain corruption or, for that matter, rising food prices. The problem here is one of credibility — rather, the absence of it. Dr Singh’s government is being seen to have just not done enough to bring down inflation. On the contrary, he and his confidantes have been making periodic predictions about an imminent fall in the inflation rate which never seems to materialise.
As for corruption, the government is not being given credit for the fact that Suresh Kalmadi is behind bars or, for that matter, the removal of Ashok Chavan from the post of chief minister of Maharashtra. There is a perception that those in the highest echelons of the government knew exactly what Mr Kalmadi, a Congress MP, was doing but chose to turn a blind eye in the interest of a smooth conduct of the Commonwealth Games. As far as Mr Chavan is concerned, two of his predecessors, Sushil Shinde and Vilasrao Deshmukh, are sitting pretty in the Cabinet. Whereas the names of all three former chief ministers of Maharashtra have come up in the context of the Adarsh Housing Society scam, the last-mentioned was severely indicted by the Supreme Court in a money-lending case that took place during his tenure. As for A. Raja, the fact is that the government did not act against him until it was literally forced to do so by the Supreme Court of India.
When it rains, it doesn’t rain; it pours. This analogy may be singularly inappropriate at a time when Lord Indra is not smiling benevolently on the country. The torrential flow of bad news has come at a time when the growth rate of the Indian economy has slowed down. What is worse, the world economy looks particularly vulnerable. The American debt crisis has highlighted what was apprehended by many, which is that the Great Recession that began in 2007 and peaked the following year is far from over three years down the line. With the crisis in the US economy showing no signs of abating in a hurry, there is considerable consternation about whether the dreaded “W-shaped”, double-dip recession will soon become reality. That would be terrible news indeed, especially since global investment flows have shrunk and the Doha Round of negotiations at the TO are in paralysis.
The finance ministry has more or less fallen in line with what the RBI has been saying for a while: that it will be tough for the economy to grow above eight per cent during the current financial year, that after a good start the monsoon has spread unevenly, and, most importantly, expecting the inflation rate to come down substantially would be unrealistic. With interest rates likely to remain hard, the domestic investment climate appears dull (with many large Indian entrepreneurs preferring to invest outside the country). Consequently, the growth-inflation trade-off could well degenerate into a stagflation-like situation in the foreseeable future.
Those in government are putting up a brave front but they can at best hope to bungle along till the next big test comes its way, namely, elections to the Legislative Assembly of the country’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta is an educator and commentator