Anna’s jolt exposes gaping disconnects: Neerja Chowdhury

Anna Hazare’s agitation has highlighted many a disconnect in today’s political setup. There is the disconnect between the young and the old schools in the Congress.

The younger lot of MPs fear an Anna wave against corruption while the veterans hope to ride the Anna storm with the traditional recipe of caste combinations during elections.

Rahul Gandhi’s speech in the Lok Sabha on Friday underscored the youth brigade’s approach.

He thanked Anna for highlighting corruption and took the battle against corruption to a higher level by suggesting that the Lokpal be made a constitutional body accountable to Parliament like the Election Commission of India. Team Anna had proposed to have the Lokpal as a statutory authority.

There is a disconnect within the BJP, the principal opposition party in the Lok Sabha.

The party’s parliamentary leaders do not favour all aspects of Anna’s bill but party president Nitin Gadkari has announced that the BJP supports the Jan Lokpal Bill, moving in tandem with the RSS and hoping to ride the crest of the Anna sentiment and win back supporters, mainly the urban middle class.

The parliamentary leaders, naturally, do not want Nagpur [the RSS headquarters] to dictate them. And the biggest disconnect of all — between the view you get sitting in Parliament’s Central Hall, interacting with MPs of all hues, and the language of Anna’s supporters at Ramlila Maidan.    

The public rhetoric by the MPs is different from their private views. Many are apprehensive that the 74-year-old man who has drawn a huge response from ordinary people all across the country — in all probability even he did not expect it — is making them redundant.

The MPs, cutting across party lines, have to pay lip service to Anna because of the current public sentiment. The government, which sent him to Tihar jail, has suddenly started ‘saluting’ him, and Congress spokesman Manish Tewari has even apologised to Anna for calling him corrupt.

The fear of being made irrelevant has united the political class to take up the issue of ‘Parliament’s supremacy’ and enacting laws following the due process, which includes referring it to the Standing Committee. Anna cannot be allowed to dictate a timeline or the contents of a bill to Parliament, they say.

For, if they accept it, they would have no role though people have elected them.

If they give in to Anna’s demands, it would open a Pandora’s box, they claim. What if several thousand Kashmiris hold an indefinite fast demanding an independent Kashmir and threaten to die if their demand is not met?

What would happen if several thousand Sangh supporters demand building the Ram temple at the disputed spot in Ayodhya? Or hundreds of millions insist that the government does away with OBC reservation in jobs and institutions… Should the government give in to all these demands just because thousands congregate and there is a fear that some may die?

While politicians have a point, it is also true that they have suddenly woken up to their rights and duties as parliamentarians. Nobody squeaks when 17 bills are passed in an hour or when demands for grants are guillotined year after year within a few seconds.

And, as those gathered at Ramlila are quick to point out, politicians themselves have brought the situation upon themselves.

The fact is people are now finding a connection between the high-level loot (the entire Anna episode has to be seen against the backdrop of the 2G spectrum allocation scam and the Commonwealth Games 2010 scam) and their plight as they have to battle rising prices and unemployment.

Though a handful at Ramlila might have actually studied the pros and cons of the Jan Lokpal Bill, they support it because they suspect the intent of the government and the political class.

Today, Anna’s bill has become synonymous with the fight against corruption. His indefinite fast has touched many hearts, mostly urban, middle class and net-savvy Indians.

But MPs admit the more the agitation lingers, the deeper will be the impact on the country. Already several MPs have been gheraoed in the hinterland. For good or for bad, Anna has captured the moment.

Given the support he has, he is no longer pushing for just a discussion on his bill in Parliament. That was his demand about a month ago. Now, he wants Parliament to pass the bill and in his given timeframe.

Naturally, this is difficult for every political party as MPs will have no leeway in government matters.

Whatever the outcome of Anna’s agitation — and the situation is still fluid — he has given a jolt to the political class. Let us hope that the agitation will strengthen both the citizenry and the functioning of Parliament.