Activism unbound

Published : May 06, 2011 00:00 IST

School children dressed up as Mahatma Gandhi taking part in a rally in Jodphur, Rajasthan, on April 8 to support Anna Hazare. The placard says, "We are with you Anna." - PTI

School children dressed up as Mahatma Gandhi taking part in a rally in Jodphur, Rajasthan, on April 8 to support Anna Hazare. The placard says, "We are with you Anna." - PTI

The people's movement for a Lok Pal Bill is a great movement indeed, but amidst all the hysteria the voice of reason and calm is being drowned.

FOR years Indians have lived with corruption in society at different levels. If one had to get a driving licence or ration card, register the purchase of land or a flat, get permission to build, get a power or water connection, get a completion certificate, in short, do anything that needed some kind of clearance or approval from some authority, one had to pay a bribe. If one did not, the approval never came or took years.

The situation was the same if one wanted to start an enterprise, import goods, export goods, produce goods activities that are intrinsic to the growth of the economy. The arrest of Arvind and Tinoo Joshi, husband and wife, both Indian Administrative Service officers, and the recovery of crores of rupees' worth of property, jewellery and cash from them; the arrest of Ravi Inder Singh, another IAS officer, for selling information on the country's security; and the scams a word covering all kinds of bribe giving and taking involving the Adarsh Housing Society, the Commonwealth Games authorities, the selling of 2G spectrum, to name just a few, point not just to the all-pervasive nature of corruption in our society but to the indifference of State and Central governments to them and to other instances of dishonesty and thievery.

Not that the indifference is surprising. After all, there are people on the take right at the top as well as at intermediate bureaucratic levels. And one can rightly claim that this is part of Indian culture and history; after all, how else did Robert Clive win the Battle of Plassey? His cleverness lay not in his abilities as a general but in his realising that Indian society was a venal one and that it was easier to buy off one of the Nawab's generals and make sure of victory that way instead of relying on strategy on the battlefield. Chittorgarh would never have fallen to the Mughal armies had the guards inside the fort not been bribed to open the gates.

But now something is happening that is causing dismay and outrage among those in authority. A 71-year-old man, Anna Hazare, is fasting to get the government to pass an effective law to bring dishonest people, no matter how exalted a position they hold, to justice and to ensure that they are actually tried and punished. And all of a sudden, like a dam bursting, the usually silent, acquiescent middle class has come out on the streets in large numbers to stand by him and demand that the law be passed. Public anger has for the first time got a face that is not political. The usually stoic people in different cities seem to be saying enough is enough. Certainly, that is what Anna Hazare is saying, and his fast roused ordinary people to confront a prevaricating government. A ridiculous, ineffectual Bill purporting to set up a Lok Pal who would take up and investigate cases of corruption has been left pending for 42 years. This is an indictment of all politicians, not just those in the United Progressive Alliance or the Congress party; the National Democratic Alliance is equally responsible for having done nothing as are all other governments, including the one headed by that crusader for rights and justice, V.P. Singh.

It is a great moment indeed, but amidst all the hysteria (stirred up in no small measure by the media) the voice of reason and calm is being drowned. This kind of people's reaction (more a middle-class phenomenon, hardly affecting the millions in the rural areas) is totally different from the true people's movement that Jayaprakash Narayan led in the mid-1970s. This one is basically drifting into the hands of a frenzied band of people who have been driven to near insanity by the sight of television cameras and outdoor broadcast vans at the site of the fast. Wild cries of This is not a protest but a revolution!, This is our Tahrir Square! give a good number of bewildered and frightened people evidence of where all this is coming from.

What exactly do these hordes of chanting, shouting young people want? The toppling of the government? Only the extremely foolish would want that. One hopes that what they want is the passing of the law for which Anna Hazare went on a fast. But they need to realise that that Bill is not perfect and needs to be discussed and made practical; for that one needs calm and rational discussion and a willingness to see and agree on what is possible and what is not. Justice Santosh Hegde, one of those who helped draft the Bill, says the draft is not perfect and he does not personally agree with some of its provisions. So it needs a mature and reasoned discussion that will end with a Bill that is effective in curbing the corruption that has taken over public life.

To not to let this happen, to let Anna Hazare continue to hold on to an intransigent position because he cannot trust a government that makes empty promises, is eventually to subvert India's democratic institutions, institutions that have only just begun to stabilise and become at least partially effective. Destroy them the legislature, the judiciary, the rule of law embodied in the Constitution that gives everyone fundamental rights and freedoms and anarchy will swallow the country. Tahrir Square is all very well, but one must remember that it was possible because of a supportive Army. Does it mean, then, that the country's democratic institutions are to be swept away and the Army invited to form a government, as it did in Egypt?

The strident Kiran Bedi, the even more strident and hysterical Arvind Kejriwal, and others who have openly wanted the television cameras to stay so that they can get more and more publicity need to step aside. There are saner, quieter voices from what these demagogues keep calling civil society such as those of Aruna Roy and Harsh Mander, among others, who are fully with Anna Hazare's demand for an effective law to establish a Lok Pal that will look impartially at corruption wherever it is and root it out. But they want this done without destroying the democracy that has been built, flawed though it is, and will be. Those are the voices that need to be heard, and those are the people who need to be involved closely in the formulation of a Lokpal Bill.

The media need to play a role that helps put the entire issue in perspective and yet continue to be a means of pressuring the government to take firm action with the help of all those who can bring reason and commitment to the task. A law has necessarily to be framed and promulgated, as an ordinance if necessary, so that action can start on its implementation and enforcement without any loss of time. That is what the government owes not only Anna Hazare and those whose anger has finally spilled on to the streets but the millions who do not or cannot speak and yet suffer from the terrible scourge of corruption day after day.

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