IAC at Ramlila ends with TAINTED NETAS taking center stage

Finally the 13day Anna Hazare fast for JanLokpal bill comes to an end at the RamLila Maidan. The whole country has been glued to the drama unfold in their drawing rooms via 24/7 news channels broadcasting every minute

of the drama. Just like the way Baba Ramdev episode was handled, the UPA did a very shoddy job of mishandling Anna & his team of over ambitious crusaders against corruption. While the UPA blunders are understandable with multiple power centers in the party playing spoil sports, cant decipher or understand the BJP’s rationale in throwing its weight behind Anna when it was supposed to have led such a campaign for reforms all by itself. The final 48 hours of this theatrics saw a sense of urgency in the political class to end this impasse. The BJP redeemed itsef to some extent after they surprisingly & unwittingly threw their weight behind Anna by making their position very clear on the contentious issues of the Janlokpal while the congress/UPA kept digging its grave much deeper & wider. While a lot of activity was happening in the BJP & the congress camps the rest of the political parties were keenly watching the events unfold sitting on the fence without spelling their stand on the JLP.

The BSP supremo Mayawati was the first one to take on Anna head on by rejecting his proposal & even went to the extent of challenging him to contest elections on the JLP plank to get referendum from the people and pass the bill. Immediately after this we saw other regional parties like the AIADMK,BJD,RJD,SP and a few more make their reservations about JLP more vocal. These parties did air similar opinion before but restrained in being vocal during the peak of Anna movement in Ramlila fearing a backlash. Post Mayawati’s bold presser they were vocal & made their reservations very clear during the debate in parliament yesterday. The BJP having made its stand very clear on Friday took away the honors in the parliamentary debate on JLP with some excellent speeches by LOP Sushma Swaraj & Arun Jaitley. While Sushma Swaraj made a good politically nuanced argument, Arun Jaitley impressed upon everyone with his statesman like appeal to all on the need for Judicial & administrative reforms. There were some other speakers from parties like CPI,CPM,RLD & BJD who did make some very good arguments. The congress speakers on the hand had to either defend their inefficiency or resort to their sycophant culture of crediting everything to the Dynasty.

The congress/UPA & the team Anna who seem to have run out of all ideas whie negotiating with each other to bring in a logical end to the movement suddenly realize and discover the Towering presence of priciple opposition party BJP(who themselves were in slumber). What helped UPA & Team Anna to approach BJP was a last minute belligerence by its president Nitin Gadkari to support Anna Hazare unconditionally at the same time pitching for a resolution to the impasse in parliament. Though belatedly the crisis man of Cong/UPA Pranab Mukherjee had the better sense to approach Sushma Swaraj, Advani & Arun Jaitley to draft a resolution which finally paved way for Anna to end his fast. Thus the UPA though temporarily got the monkey of its back but on the other hand the BJP has now taken the burden of carrying this monkey on its head. Its a very uphill task now for the parliament to amend JLP with consensus as many regional players are opposed to many aspects.

The end game to the Ramlila theatrics was in many ways very disgusting & disturbing. The government sent out the “Sense of house resolution” through two people who are currently battling serious corruption charges against them. Vilasrao Deshmukh who is indicted in the Adharsh scam & Sandeep Dixit who along with his mother the Dehi CM Sheila Dixit are accused in the CWG scams. What is also surprising is that Anna Hazare was very happy to receive the draft & announce the breaking of his fast from these men who are yet to be cleared of corruption charges. This brings me to question the whole movement of IAC for a strong JLP. The movement which did catch the imagination of Young & middle class India has been lost in the melee of one upmanship of few vested individuals. Team Anna while declaring their movement as success have clearly & very categorically thanked only the PM,Vilasrao Deshmukh & Sandeep Dixit on the dias much to my dismay. There was not a word mentioned about BJP though it was the only party which supported & threw its weight behind the Anna movement unconditionally.

The people should really think seriously & ponder on the closing ceremony events of the Ramlila maidan theatrics by India Against Corruption. A few individuals masquerading as activists with national interest premise should not be allowed to hijack our democracy. Yes it is very true that the Anna Hazare fast has woken up Indians from their slumber. But now it is time for the revitalized middle class & the youth of this country to ensure they make their elected representatives accountable. With the awakening that this movement has brought about i hope to see near to 100% voting when the time comes to elect the right leaders to lead/govern our great democracy……..

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