In Defense of Anna and his team

The media is abuzz of late regarding Anna and his team. Did Anna make a ‘U’ turn-?He is being misled, he wanted to change the structure of the core team ,how democratic is the Anna team, what about the donations and the nameless donors etc etc.These and more have been debated and questioned and clarified and scrutinized by both the print and the electronic media. There is always Digvijaya Singh to add spice to the whole thing and now the latest is the Maharastra CM-Chavan who says that Anna is being edged into becoming political. Apart from these there is the question of harassment. Let is starting with the economy class and the Business class travel of Kiran Bedi, the IT notice to Kejriwal and the phone tapping-apart from the ‘U’turn of Anna-the political ambitions of the Anna team and the falling back of the Congress of parliamentary traditions to justify the ‘soon’ time limit for passing the Lokpal bill.These clearly go to show that the Congress is jittery and wants to harass the opponents.

Let’s look at these objectively. The main focus must be the issue that Anna team is focused on. Its members do not matter so much because no one is perfect. Kiran Bedi case it is like comparing a small pickpocket misconduct with the white collared crime of looting and fleecing the country. One must make a distinction between graft and these misconducts-bringing an enormous loss to the nation, misleading the people and betraying the trust that the ministers and MPs took on their oaths solemnly promising to act without fear or favor. Where has that oath gone and is that not a total betrayal of the people?

Regarding the IT notice to Kejriwal it is like going after a needle in a haystack. The lakhs of crores of rupees which Hasan Ali Khan has to submit as tax, the black money stashed in tax havens which for years and years are just hanging in the air while Kejriwal was given an income tax notice for the 9 lakhs that he is alleged to pay as tax. Is there no proportion and rationale behind these .What is the comparison? It gives Digvijaya Singh some ammunition to start a smear campaign.

How democratic is the Anna team. One fails to understand the legitimacy of the Congress spokespersons to raise this; because that party has no internal democracy and neither does it believe in democracy. How was Rahul Gandhi made the General Secretary-for that matter Digvijaya Singh. Is democracy even as a concept accepted by the Congress? Then it will not have the National Advisory committee. Who appointed the NAC and how democratically its members are elected? Mind you, the NAC is being paid by the tax payer. Who sanctioned this budget? Did Parliament go into the NAC’s budget and sanction it-for that matter even the very structure has no Constitutional sanction and legitimacy. What right has the NAC to advise the PM.? How can it usurp the role of the cabinet and made the latter superfluous. All this means money. The people have a right to know the total expenditure of the NAC. And this is the Congress that rakes up donations and nameless donors. Has the Congress any moral right to do so. Let it first set its house in order before it talks of democracy and donations and donors.

To come to Anna’s ‘U-turn-where is the ‘U’ turn he made and if he made he is justified in it because as issues rise and as smear campaign gains momentum he needs to change his stance. He is not under any oath and there is no hidden agenda. Even if he had one he cannot be blamed. As to his becoming political and the team having political ambitions is no sin- Anna cannot fight the corruption without fighting the Congress –because both are synonymous. To fight corruption will automatically lead to fighting the Congress. And to fight the Congress will mean giving an advantage to the next biggest national party-namely the BJP. Not that it is without corruption. The lesser evil must be chosen. So what is strange in this? To be political is not a sin. Do Chavan-the CM of Maharastra and the Congress leaders think that to be political is their exclusive right? The Congress thinks it has the mandate to two things-one corruption-it is its birth right and the second is dynasty rule-the divine right to rule

The sparing between the Anna team and the Congress on phone tapping one must realize that the Congress is past masters in this hitting below the belt technique. Even in the days of Ramakrishnan Hegde phone tapping was resorted to by the Opposition Congress under SM Krishnan. It is the usual strategy of the Congress.
 
The latest utterance made by Abhishek Manu Singhvi that the parliamentary committee examining the Lokpal bill will complete its work ‘soon’. He added that giving a fixed timeline would be against parliamentary traditions is laughable. The Congress which has violated every parliamentary norm and tradition and institution   is now falling back on that to justify a no time limit fixing. Is it not ridiculous? One has waited too long and it is prudent for the congress to give a time limit because the ‘soon’ can be timeless and then it will be late because nemesis will over take the Congress by then.

It is amply clear that the Congress will not fight corruption on the other hand will try its best to defend it because it is sitting on the tree’s branch  named corruption and naturally will not want to axe that branch.

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