Hazare and his team of social activists are challenging the official bill in Parliament and want their draft alone introduced and put to vote.
The government repeated a mistake committed when it first serenaded yoga guru Swami Ramdev and then detained him, giving his supporters the third degree.
Both situations were mishandled, with an approach that was less political and more legalistic and bureaucratic.
Hazare was sought to be released within 12 hours. But when, with milling crowds outside the jail, he refused, the government accepted most of his demands, displaying a clear lack of conviction.
By denying Hazare the right to protest at a public place in a peaceful manner, the government earned the odium of being seen as undemocratic.
This was 16 August, a day after celebrating Independence. In a display of mass anger that old-timers compared with the August 1942 ‘Quit India’ movement against the British, the middle class shamed the very government that it had re-elected two years ago.
India’s ‘Genext’, often accused of being ‘I, me, myself’, joined in. The largely forgotten ‘Gandhi cap’ re-appeared, perhaps as evidence of Indians re-inventing their past.
One had to see the crowds at Rajghat, Mahatma Gandhi’s mausoleum, or Tihar jail, where Hazare was lodged for three nights. National flags sold at a premium. Protests spilled to the diaspora in some countries.
The most significant thing was that this was spontaneous and completely peaceful.
For the time being, the government and Congress Party, preparing to contest key elections, including in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, may have lost the vocal support of these sections.
Although Manmohan is the best prime minister they have had in years, even business leaders, afraid that political crisis could impact the economy and the country’s standing in the global market, spoke up.
Manmohan himself told Parliament about India being an ’emerging economy’ and ‘one of the important players on the world stage’, urging that this ‘should not be hijacked by internal dissension’.
‘There are many forces that would not like to see India realise its true place in the comity of nations,’ he warned darkly, adding: ‘We must not play into their hands.’
The ‘foreign conspiracy’ charge returned, albeit momentarily, harking back to the Cold War era, following a US State Department spokesperson’s comment about action against ‘peaceful protests’. The Congress fell silent after Washington’s denial.
The current scenario is a reminder of the 1987-89 period when the Rajiv Gandhi government was accused of receiving kickbacks in a gun deal with a Swedish firm, then called Bofors, and for German submarines. The campaign contributed to Rajiv’s downfall.
This is 2011. The big difference is that the media and civil society have both grown in size and clout. India’s middle class has also multiplied to 250 million, to be 300 million by 2015.
Manmohan’s government realises that goodies, and opportunities to acquire them, are not enough for this class. It is aggressive, even if hypocritical, and is now the engine of the economy, if not the political processes that involve larger numbers.
To be fair to the government, it was a Catch 22 situation. It would have been the loser even if it had not arrested Hazare.
Out of jail, Hazare called for a ‘revolution’ and indicated that his fast would continue until Parliament passes the Jan Lokpal Bill. It is populist but dangerous; some are calling it blackmail.
One has witnessed public anger and mass movements being hijacked and the names of honest, well-meaning personalities used and misused. This can happen to Hazare, too.
The Hazare team’s Jan Lokpal has an elitist approach. It targets the high and the mighty. But there is no remedy for the small man who must bribe the lower echelons of authority — the clerk or policeman.
There is no clear concept of what, or who, the watchdog should be. Should he (she) be above the chief justice of India and Parliament’s presiding officers? Would that fall within the constitution?
As Times of India said editorially: ‘Manmohan Singh isn’t wrong in saying that a Lokpal alone won’t defeat corruption, especially when it is not subject to checks and balances.’
Most important: Manmohan says, but civil society disagrees. Only Parliament can legislate. Cutting across party lines, the political class, despite its opportunistic targeting of the government and its backing for Hazare’s right to dissent, is clear about not supporting his Jan Lokpal.
When Hazare and his team pleaded for their draft, members of Parliament’s standing committee told them to desist from some of the key demands that fall outside the constitution.
No middle ground is in sight.
Amidst this din, a well-researched book, ‘Lokpal: Facts and Arguments’ by senior journalist Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr, hit the bookstalls last week.
Parsa gives full credit to the civil society leaders for pushing the government and securing for Lokpal due urgency.
In an even-handed approach, he says: ‘I am not an enthusiast of Team Hazare’s Jan Lokpal. I am quite sceptical about its rationale. Equally, I think the United Progressive Alliance government and the political parties are quite cynical and hypocritical in their approach to the issue.
‘For all their faults, political parties, by winning and losing elections, represent the people’s sentiments more than any other group. The civil society groups are dangerous because they claim to be speaking up for the people but they never bother to get the popular mandate.’
‘Lokpal, however important, cannot be the sole item on the national agenda to the exclusion of everything else. On the other hand, it cannot be relegated to the margin as it has been done,’ Parsa concludes.
The samudra manthan has so far eluded any ratnas, the gems of treasures, or amrit, the nectar, to be distributed fairly among the contending parties. But it has produced chaos and distrust since, as Parsa says, it is ‘a political tussle’.
Although Hazare and his group are not seeking power, it is nevertheless ‘a power game between two groups’.
Mahendra Ved is a New Delhi-based writer and columnist.
This article was originally published here in the New Strait Times on 22 August 2011.