Anna’s Party: Whoops! Whoops! Clean Up, Clean Up

Which way is Anna heading? Or, which way is he being dragged?

Post the very successful Ramlila sequence, there has been a great sense of disappointment. All of it is public knowledge, every day there is some news or the other being discussed in the public domain about the high profile Brand Anna. While management students and websites are debating the values that have gone in to the making of the Brand Anna, the Team Anna seems to be in tatters.

To start with, Anna’s crusade against the Congress candidate at Hisssar has not gone down very well. His plans to take on the Congress in the forthcoming state elections also appears to be ill advised. Hissar did not prop up very many “clean” candidates – Bishnoi and Master Chauthala were not the best options. Anna knew about it, but instead of propping an acceptable candidate, it just became an electoral battle against the Congress. The fear is we may land up with more “Deep Seas” instead of the “Devils”. In UP for instance, it is hardly possible to choose between a clean SP or a BSP to take on a Congress candidate, who as an individual may be a better option! But by then the Winter Session of the Parliament will be over and in case there are some positive moves taken by the august house, Anna may not have to campaign against the Congress. Even then, a question slowly making its way in to the drawing rooms is the clarity, or the lack of Anna’s agenda.

Is the movement becoming political?

There is definitely a total lack of leadership. The “team” is pulling the cart in too many directions and one team member is not in sync with the other. Anna does not agree with Prasant Bhushan on the Kashmir issue (which is certainly justified from Anna’s point of view), Santosh Hedge says he is only in agreement with the “Corruption” factor, Swami Agnivesh has publicly denounced Anna + team, there are definite charges of money mismanagement on the part of Kejriwal and worse, Kiran Bedi. The reasons amplified by Kejriwal and Bedi may be justified, but it has certainly sent out the wrong signals, it will take them quite some time to repair the damages, if at all.

Are we unconditionally backing the right movement? The question I am posing may seem to be engineered by the Congress and I have a good reason to believe that the Dirty Tricks Department of the Congress Party led by Mama Digvijay and Chacha Kapil have systematically worked on the media and others to wash the dirty linen of Anna’s Team in public, creating diversions and suspicions, but it is a valid one.

The problem is that while the issue of weeding out corruption is totally valid, the strategy of the movement and the credibility of the “team” seem to be a little suspicious. Sad, these questions are being raised at a time when every Indian wants Anna to succeed, to stand up against the corrupt political system, to hold our head and high and be proud to be called an Indian.

Merely pointing fingers at Anna + Team is not a positive solution. There are a few steps which may be considered.

First of all this ‘Team” needs to be reorganized. Either take the hard step of dismantling, or getting out of the Legal-NGO syndrome. Right now it looks like a five man coterie and their decision seems to be final. And sadly, there seems to be a coterie within a coterie! The NGO elements are seemingly using this movement to better their organization while Anna goes in to a Maunavrta! As of now, Swami Agnivesh, a much respected activist seems to have fallen out, tomorrow it may be Medha Patekar. Further, there seems to be too many personal ego hassles and there are too many opinions sugared with “We have a a common agenda in rooting out corruption.” Today Anna says I will take support from RSS, the next day he says why has RSS written such a letter. And in his tone there is an underlying, “Listen to what I say, or else….”

Frankly, none of the team members are equipped to run a campaign the way it should. They need a Gerson da Cunha or a Justice Verma to head an advisory group which may include people like S K Misra, Cho, Dr Pronoy Roy and Prabhat Pattanaik. And the Group’s advise should be supreme, not that of an Inner Circle. There are still a few Gandhian industrialists who have openly supported Anna and can be roped in.

Anna will have to take a hard decision. Is it a political group he is forming or a  successful civil movement this nation has been waiting for and are willing to give all they have to make it happen. Or else, the flight could soon be crashing and we will go back to the Dark Ages to be ruled by Rajas and Sharad Pawars.