He or Team Anna must not stray into political issues!
Then, they must join a political party or float a separate party!
Parliamentary democracy has its own structure and imposes limitations of Agitations or individual action. Civil society is just one more forum for individual freedoms and freedom of expression, right!.
Team Anna must display moderation and a give and adopt a flexible attitude!
That only will work in a Parliamentary democracy, right? Opposition parties on Anna’s Jantar Mantar show was only playing to the gallery. Back in Parliament or outside they may change their strategies. One hopes Team Anna knows this. And act, in more moderate ways.
Parliamentary Democracy works best when everyone participates! Everyone in India for sure wants to fight corruption through a strong Lokpal. Team Anna should not assume that only they are concerned and has to agitate.
Any agitation in a democracy has to go along with the public opinion. The agitation must not disrupt government and Parliament. Parliament is supreme in the sense that it is Parliament that ultimately passes the Bill. For this everyone, Team Anna and Opposition, smaller parties ,all must co-operate.
The final outcome of the Bill might not satisfy everyone, even the Team Anna but citizens must welcome it as an outcome of the collective wisdom of the House. It looks whether Team Anna is aware of this limitation, the limitation of any individual or civil society agitations which are at best only the beginning of a journey through Parliamentary procedures.
Team Anna’s rigidity might prove to be counter-productive!
Team Anna should not assume that Congressmen are against a strong Lokpal. The Jantar Mantar fast, now for the third time after Ramlila Ground grand fast, has achieved its goal? That of ensuring a strong Lokpal?
The Jantar Manta meet of Team Anna and the Opposition parties produced an outcome whose exact character and its final outcome are all in the future.
Parliament would surely produce a Bill and the Lokpal, for sure ,would be set up.
The mute point is not the final draft. The final draft as passed by Parliament must be put to operation and it is the working of the Lokpal Bill that would be watched by the whole country.
Unfortunately, the Team Anna seems to be working on the assumption that it had produced a Bill to its demand or if there are short-comings, it cools always resort to agitation and politically, Team Anna would go out to the states and propagate against the Congress in the elections. May be as the Team Anna is constituted with some very dedicated and even extremist members, lawyers and activists with a sort of fascist mindset, the Team might become a permanent fixture in the civil society map of India and the Indian polity. As a Parliamentary democracy, our polity must be able to absorb and assimilate the various pulls and counter-pulls and even with the threat of Anna going on fasts ,more often in the future on some issues that deeply agitate him,. There is also the chance for our democratic polity to work with such of his threats.
So, the threat of Anna’s demands on Lokpal or its further improvements or on any one of his others demands like the right to recall etc would be there.
The point here I want to make is that the latest Jantar Manta fast with Opposition leaders supporting Team Anna is not that very important. The Opposition would always seek to make its pull relevant and on such an occasion like the Anna’s dais was just utilised by the Opposition.
Now, given the Congress’s current plight is such that there is no unanimity among the PM’s colleagues. It looks and it is no longer a secret the PM is also not taken seriously by his colleagues. It is reported that only 60-70 per cent of the Cabinet Ministers attend the Cabinet meetings. Also, Sonia Gandhi must also more responsibility in the deterioration of the government.
The distinction between the party and the quality of governance is no longer valid and the sort of visible decline in governance must be prevented or the government must be reshuffled, new blood must be injected into the government with better talented ministers.
It is the sheer display of weakness or unjustifi8ed arrogance(as the ministers do over a range of issues),be it Internet freedom or resorting to dirty tricks on opponents, the image of Manmohan Singh, his very silence and invisibility is telling on the morale of the government.
Rahul Gandhi’s own limitations are also coming out in the open. Anna chose to attack Mr.Gandhi directly, leaving out his mother and this is also not good in the interests of everybody and in the interest of ensuring good governance image.
Mr.Digvijay Singh and other General Secretaries also must own up responsibility for this all-round deterioration and either they ,or some of them must voluntarily come forward to resign and make way for new faces or Sonia Gandhi must act.
The point is that the Congress party or more specifically, the Indian National Congress, the original organisation’s character as a national party, as a national movement ,must be enhanced by conducting an internal election or as an immediate alternative ,a new reshuffle of the PCCS, the CWC must be effected to give the all-round impression that the party is not controlled by some vested interests.
The party must restore its old glory.
This can be done by several ways.
Even if the internal party elections are conducted by a team of the ex-Election Commission officials, as Rahul Gandhi did for his youth Congress outfit, it would generate an enormous enthusiasm in the party ranks and the larger sections of the general public.
If this is not done, if for some reason, Sonia Gandhi doesn’t act, either fast or by delegating this work to some senior leaders, then the general impression that prevails as if the party coterie is just responsible for the slow destruction of the Grand Old Party.
What is the point of the government and the party prolonging for the next two years without doing either of these things.
Either reshuffle the Cabinet, select and appoint some talented individuals, some non-party experts, some eminent academics for such posts like HRD, Culture and even for other portfolios(there is a long list of non-performing individuals and they must be asked to vacate and others brought in).
Unfortunately, even the otherwise supposedly talented ministers have become a sort of untouchables in the scandals that are engulfing the country.
The writings on the walls are clear and loud.
If we dither and drift further for the next few months, even not till the expiry of the term of this Parliament we would be letting the country bruise and suffer, both politically and even in terms of a badly hit economic growth.
There is every chance that things could not become better.
This is an unfortunate thought.
We would like to kill such thoughts but then some others must also think alike and help to reverse the trend. This can be done by those holding office in Delhi.
I speak only as a common man, a Congressman and an expert of sorts in these areas of party functioning and government affairs.
Indian media is also not in a very healthy and vibrant mode. The Press Council Chairman Justice Katju is doing fine. The PM must help him, give him the powers he asks. Please act, act fast.
Judiciary is doing well. Parliament, we have to admit, is doing its duty and the many standing committees are showing a great deal of independence and earning some credibility and this gives hope.
The real action must come from two sources, the party chief and the Prime Minister. No less the conscience-stricken individuals in the Cabinet and at the CWC and the PCCs.
Unfortunately, the drift has gone far and everyone in Delhi has a duty to perform at his difficult juncture.