The crux of the government’s strategy is to ensure that fasting anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare’s deteriorating health does not reach a tipping point, and cause public mayhem with the potential of a blowback for the ruling Congress at election time.
Mindful of this, the government proposes to position itself to rush Mr Hazare to hospital for treatment, if this is deemed crucial, well-placed party sources said here on Wednesday.
Fearful of just this, Mr Hazare on Tuesday appealed to his milling supporters at the Ramlila Maidan that they should rise up to block any such move by the government.
The fasting — and the stubborn refusal to be hospitalised — accords with Mr Hazare’s insistence that the government accept the campaign’s Jan Lokpal Bill and get it passed by parliament by August 30. The setting of a deadline for such an important legislation is seen as intimidatory in official circles.
Even as finance minister Pranab Mukherjee began engaging with the Hazare group today, following Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Tuesday letter to the eminent protester urging the exploration of common ground on the Lokpal law, the government formally sent Mr Hazare’s version of the bill to the all-party standing committee of parliament deliberating on the vexed legislation.
This is a pointer that the government will be loath to entertain any thought of short-circuiting established parliamentary processes that are deemed vital to law-making, especially for an important legislation such as this.
Mr Hazare’s aides have been demanding that the stage of the standing committee deliberations be dispensed with altogether. Such an expedient, they say, will help the government to meet their deadline. This is exactly what the government continues to resist. The hijacking of any aspect of standard law-making processes is unthinkable, say Congress sources.