What next for Team Anna?

The last fortnight was an interesting time for Team Anna. A series of incidents has severely dented the image of the rainbow alliance, and caused confusion, consternation and a crisis of confidence among its core support base.

First, there was Prashant Bhushan with his utterances on a referendum in Kashmir to sort out the issue of self-determination. The argument that in a civilised, democratic republic, one has the right to both free speech and self-determination is, in this context, academic. What is real is the fact that a large portion of Team Anna’s support base was from individual citizens who are on the right of the political spectrum. These were people who turn-ed up in large numbers at the Ramlila grounds as volunteers and supporters. In advocating plebiscite, Bhushan crossed a lakshman rekha by questioning India’s territorial integrity and betrayed a large chunk of the anti-corruption movement’s support base. Anna himself spoke out against Bhushan’s statement, but by then the damage was done.

The Constituent Assembly that drafted the Indian Constitution, while enshrining our rights, duties and freedoms, left out key methods of direct democracy, namely, referendum, plebiscite and the right to recall. Perhaps they felt it would be impractical as well as divisive in a large, diverse nation like India with many interest groups. Team Anna, either deliberately or in ignorance, has let the genie of referendum out of the bottle. You would expect a team of former civil servants and practicing lawyers to know that no referendum is possible in India under the Constitution. However, in setting themselves up above all other systems, they have in their collective hubris set a potentially explosive precedent. If people have the right to vote for and demand a Jan Lokpal directly, surely they have the right to vote and demand other things, like independent states like Telengana or Vidarbha or even independent nations. Bhushan may have become persona non grata with the rest of Team Anna, but he just took the philosophy of ‘referendum’ one step further.

No sooner had Bhushan become yesterday’s news than came the revelation that Kiran Bedi had been over-invoicing various NGOs that had invited her to participate in their programmes. She would travel economy class but charge business class to the concerned NGO. While it isn’t illegal, it is definitely in the unethical space. If you worked for a company and overcharged on travel and they found out, you would most likely be asked to go. It would be perceived that you had integrity issues. Bedi, of course, vigorously defended her actions. Her claims that the money ‘saved’ by her travelling economy and charging business class ‘went to her NGO’ sounded like a politician’s defence. Most political parties in India have political machinery. They have volunteers and workers at the ground level who work with local communities. These volunteers and workers ‘do good’ for their constituency, be it helping people acquire ration cards, getting children admission, or helping people find jobs. It is alleged that parties use the money made from ‘kickbacks’ to fund these ‘good works’. Now, isn’t the point of an anti-corruption movement to prevent leakages, no matter how laudable the end use?

Finally, there is Arvind Kejriwal. He is not only accused of not paying back dues worth Rs9.27 lakh to his former employer, the Indian Revenue Service, but also depositing cash collected by India Against Corruption into the Public Cause Research Foundation, a private trust run by him. Kejriwal justified this by saying that the IAC cannot open a bank account because it is a movement, not an organisation. While that may be true, people donated to the IAC, not the PCRF. Transparency, which is so required in public life to ensure a corruption-free society, was sorely absent when it came to Kejriwal’s own dealings.
While Team Anna has been blaming the government for muck raking, the fact remains that if there is no muck, it cannot be raked. Also, if you are going to abuse, revile and cast aspersions on people, they are going to return the favour. It is human nature. Team Anna has hopefully realised what politicians have known for a long time. It is a bit difficult to take the moral high ground when you are sinking in the quicksand of ambiguous morality.

Therefore, it is best not to get sanctimonious, self righteous and personal.  Maybe it is time that corruption gets looked at as a systemic issue with systemic solutions rather than magic wands like the Jan Lokpal.

Harini Calamur is a media entrepreneur, writer, blogger, teacher & the main slave to an imperious hound. She blogs at calamur.org/gargi and @calamur on Twitter