Has the Anna team got the copy right for fasting?

There seems to be a jealousy at the grand success and the sentiments Modi has been able to elucidate by his fast. After all the corruption against which Anna team is supposed to be fighting against is not all that simple and a straight line target to be attacked. If there is no peace and harmony-if communities cannot think of themselves as Indians then what is the use of fighting corruption? By criticizing Modi Anna and his team has exposed themselves of self centeredness and pettiness

Take for example Prashant Bhushan stating that if someone spends government money for political gains then it is corruption. Government has no money of its own but it is people’s money. Anna team also utilized and depended on people’s money. Was it for religious affairs? No, every move of Anna team was and is political. It sounds nonsensical for Anna team to say that we are not political-we do not belong to any political party and we do not support any political party. Then what are they? Why fight shy of being political? Why fight shy of supporting political parties. After all it is governance that the team is talking about. Can governance be outside politics?

Government’s money ultimately belongs to the people so if Modi’s fast required some spending he is not corrupt to have his own financiers and neither has he black money stashed in Italy and Switerland. So as a Chief Minister of a state his actions will call for government spending and how can that be called corruption? If Rahul Gandhi goes on mass contact program and a three layer security is thrown around him-is that not expenditure on the government and will it not fall under corruption. When Mrs Sonia went for her ‘surgery’ and after surgery lived in a service apartment whose money was spent? Will Anna team find out the total cost of the surgery and the service apartment? Lok pal is not the end all and the be all of things that are happening and yet to happen. Every where there is corruption. When the cabinet ministers go abroad for treatment it is personal and yet the people’s monies are spent. Under what do these fall? According to Bhushan
it is corruption if one is to use the same yardstick that he has used for Modi.

Nobody denies that Modi is not a political person. All that he does will definitely go towards either building his image or chipping away at it. This cannot be helped because he is a political person first and last-and he is the Chief minister. What is jarring is that Anna team has demeaned itself by exhibiting pettiness and jealousy and an arrogance that it alone will solve India’s one problem namely ‘corruption .In the meantime the black money has vanished-Hasan Ali Khan’s 62 lakh crores tax has doubled with interest and the case is kept dragging along. The CBI –the subservient handmaid of the Congress is not prepared to net in P.Chidambaram the Home minister for his role in 2G spectrum. Who is voicing these concerns? Is it not part of corruption?

The people are heaving and struggling under inflation. The immediately need is to lighten their burden whether the back money comes back or not this again is left out in the Anna team’s perception. Of course it cannot tackle everything-but let it do first things first. The petrol price hike is having a cascading effect on all commodities especially cereals and vegetables and every day items which is not confined to the middle class alone. It hits the poor with greater force because their daily wages will not be able to get them a proper nutritious meal a day. Then we will have dancer Mallika Sarabhai and other activists pointing out at malnutrition and claim that Gujarat’s health record is low.

I would like to know why this Modi antagonism. The Congress has much more on its conscience, be it butchering, massacre of people, misleading the people, supporting Pakistan and abetting terrorism, high inflation it is squeezing the poor and abetting hunger and poverty et al.But it is Modi who is the target. Just one Gujarat riots and the NGOs along with the Congress want to keep it alive and not wish for peace and harmony. Is that not anti-people and ant-India. Any group and party who keeps the people divided is anti-patriotic and this is what makes the Congress a suspect in everything.

‘According to Kejriwal, ‘We don’t need more yatras .Let the parties bring in Jan Lokayukta bills in their States. The Centre may take time for various reasons. The ruling parties can set up Lokayuktas in their States’. Well said, but one cannot feel a bit diffident when he says the Centre may need time for various reasons. The Centre when it wanted to pass the Foreigners bill (for legitimizing Mrs Sonia Gandhi” as an Indian) passed it in just a matter of two weeks. When it wants to hike petrol price then it is simply passed by a Group of empowered ministers, no Parliament, no discussion and no consultation with the allies. So it can find ways and means to pass the Lok Pal in the shortest period instead of allowing it to drag on if the Government wants to. Before the Lok Pal is passed much water would flow under the bridge and the dynamism it created will be gone may be the need also will evaporate. This is exactly what the government is looking
for. Every corruption /scam case is the same. What about the scams? Why not put these on fast tracks? Kejriwal seem to accept this slow mode motion. This does not auger well. He also does not want any more yatras-that is not for him to state and he has no authority for that. Yatras are one method of mass contact-let leaders have yatras if they feel like and want to. Why run that down. So are we to believe that one Anna fasting episode is enough to put the nation on the right track and to banish corruption?

According to Kejriwal if Chief Ministers have significant powers in appointing Lokayukta there will be a conflict of interest’ then how will he conduct enquires against the CM’ In this  Kejriwal has a  valid query. The same pertains to the PM and for that matter also the Parliamentarians. If they have the final say in drafting the LokPal how will they want it to be worded-without loopholes for their escape. How will it encompass the PM and the Parliamentarians how is Lokayukta going to enquire into them? After all it is the political  class which must be under the scanner and not the poor clerk who sits at his desk. So we are waiting for the LP which we think is going to enquire into the corruption of the politicians and they are drafting it and will have to pass the bill. Jai Ho

In the meantime it would be judicious for Anna team not to fault Modi or other yatras. Each one can do what is best and available to focuss on the multifarious facets and layers of corruption-even garner votes because without a good honest party and honest upright politicians how can governance be sans corruption? Finally Anna team must remember that it is deep in politics-nothing can be outside politics as far as Indian polity is concerned. What stands out is the Modi phobia which is detrimental both to those who suffer from it and the unity of India. Peace and harmony are not slogans it is embedded in development-it is embedded in growth and in brotherhood. Every patriotic citizen must long for it, work for it and pray for it and encourage every single individual to contribute towards it in his/own way-that’s Sadbhavana mission