As the government struggled to clear itself out of the political mess, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) jumped in to swim in the troubled waters.
As the government struggled to clear itself out of the political mess, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) jumped in to swim in the troubled waters.
The party has launched a massive attack on government by holding rallies and dharnas to add to the government’s woes even as BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said the government was being undemocratic both in and out of parliament. Swaraj’s attempt to make a statement in Lok Sabha on Hazare episode was shouted down by treasury benches.
In fact, the Opposition parties have ganged up to pin down the government in parliament on Wednesday. They want the prime minister to make a statement in both houses explaining the situation.
“Can ministers in the government give an undertaking that Congress will not hold a rally which has more than 1,000 people? Has it not held rallies which had more than 5,000 people? You cannot impose such unreasonable clauses. They are taking away the right to dissent and protest. The ministers have shown smugness and arrogance and tried to give an impression that power is immortal,” said Arun Jaitley, BJP’s leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha.
BJP president Nitin Gadkari said that the Congress is giving the impression of Emergency. “What an irony! Those who protest against corruption are lobbed off with the corrupt in Tihar. This is dictatorship,” Gadkari said.
Within the bureaucratic and security circles too there are strong views on government’s way of tackling pro-Jan Lokpal bill agitation and finally messing it up by arresting Hazare.
“It was purely a political decision taken at the highest level and in no manner, if given full authority, the administration would have arrested him. A much safer way would have been to detain Anna and then set him free in the evening. In normal course, the police would have done this repetitively for three-four days and the agitation would have dissipated,” said sources in bureaucratic circles.
Officials, veterans in dealing with similar situations, maintained that the government “action in haste” has made Anna a martyr and it would be doubly difficult to deal with the situation as more and more people come pouring to the streets to join the agitation. According to sources, the matter was discussed threadbare and despite strong views the decision to arrest Anna was put into effect.
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