What next? An out-of-the-box, constitutional solution

Vituperation pour-ed into my inbox following my article ‘A Few Questions for Anna Worshippers’ published in DNA on August 22, which left me wondering whether ‘uncivil’ society had taken over the movement.

Apart from the abuse, a main accusation in most mails was that I was proposing no practical solution, just raising objections against a noble mass movement.

The suggestion mentioned in the article — that we refuse to pay bribe every single time — just didn’t seem glamourous enough, probably because it involves so much pain and persistence.

Nevertheless, now that Anna has got his Parliament resolution and broken his fast, what next? The Lokpal Bill itself is yet to be legislated. So are we in for yet another round of fasting aided by high decibel mass hysteria and disproportionate media coverage a few months down the line, since Anna claims ‘this is just half a victory’?

Instead, having garnered a certain level of public support, why not transform this agitation into a potent instrument of constitutional democracy. Here’s how:

1. Like a smart leader, Anna shouldn’t let his team or the public support turn him into a larger than life, extra-constitutional moral authority. He has galvanised ordinary citizens and it makes sense to aim for the ‘regeneration’ of participative politics rather than the ‘degeneration’ of democracy into potentially anarchic methods.

2. Team Anna, and in fact all sensible and balanced voices in civil society, should draft a comprehensive charter of demands including electoral reforms, administrative reforms, police reforms, Lokpal Bill, economic reforms and other legislations and systemic changes that can transform India. This charter should be submitted to all political parties and especially to the government, asking them to pass these bills before the next general elections in 2014.

3. Civil Society, with Anna at the forefront, should register itself as a political party and those who support this movement should actively work as volunteers to set up a grassroots-level political organisation, which apart from creating awareness, leads targeted agitations against corruption and related issues in their respective constituencies for the next three years, keeping the pot boiling, without resorting to undemocratic means or fasts.

4. At the same time, civil society should push for representation on drafting committees of the legislations/reforms mentioned above.
5. Finally, if there is no indication of substantive movement by the government, and political parties on the demands in the citizen’s charter by 2013 (a year before the elections), the citizen’s charter should be turned into the election manifesto of the civil society’s political party. They should gird up their loins, select candidates and build a powerful mass campaign to contest the 2014 general elections as a constitutionally sanctioned democratic force.

That would be the way to harness and sustain the momentum of the current popular sentiment and bring about a lasting, constructive change in our system while firmly holding on to the wonderful principles of a constitutional democracy. More importantly, it may be able to provide us with the much longed-for ‘political alternative’ we seek and the clean parliamentary representation we yearn for.

This approach may also be able to give everyone the time to ponder and debate the long-term consequences of legislations, instead of taking counter-productive decisions in haste that may make the cure worse than the disease.

Also, it will hopefully broadbase the discussion to include a gamut of issues and solutions thereto, instead of focusing on one magic bill.

Finally, it will give ordinary citizens the time to introspect and work out how we can be contribute our bit to the solution, instead of merely playing victim and blaming politicians. For if we want a corruption free India, we must never forget the old tenet — ‘People get the government they deserve’.