Have you any idea about money involved in corruption in Bharat since 1947, i.e. Independence? Can you name the scams which gobbled up the tax-payers’perspiration? What miracles could that huge amount would have performed had we, as a nation, been upright, honest,or at least “patriotic” to borrow the Saffron idiom? Did the swindlers face justice or were they let off? These are some of the key, cutting questions, that have, since long, been agitating the citizens’ mind.
MARKED AVERSION
If we have a cursory glance at our Parliament, state Legislatures as well as “people’s representatives”, we find a marked aversion in them to take the bull by the horns. Under one weak alibi or the other weaker one, things were never allowed to reach their logical conclusion. This time too the Cong-led UPA dispensation tried its level best to scuttle the move. But public pressure coupled with the government blunders did not allow Dr. Manmohan Singh to postpone the denouement, backed by Anna Hazare’s fast-unto-death.
STATUSQUOIST
VS PRO-CHANGERS
The argument of the status-quoists was: we, parliament alone are sovereign. None except us can make or unmake laws. The pro-changers represent themselves. They are not people’s representatives, etc. etc.
The argument of pro-changers was: the shady charactershave ceased to be “people’s representatives”. You now represent yourself and your petty patrons’ interests at the cost of the nation.
The uncouth dual apart, has the Congress never talked to or signed MoUs or Accords with unelected persons? A few examples:
1) Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi signed an Accord with SanthLongowal in 1985. The later was not then operating in any official capacity, being neither minister nor chief minister. Rajiv did so for the sake of peace in Punjab. No technicality or prior Parliamentary approval stopped him from taking the bold decision.
2) Another Accord was signed by Mr. Rajiv with the All-Assam Students Union (AASU) which represented no government. Then it was just a civil society movement. No Plato of those times accused him of violating the constitutional norms or integrity of Parliament.
3) His illustrious mother had earlier signed an Accord with Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, then he had no official status and might have been facing the charges of sedition.
HISTORIOGRAPHERS
OF CONGRESS
Have the historiographers of Dr. Manmohan Singh had forgotten these very recent examples of the two Prime Ministers signing Accords with unelected and unrepresentativepeople?
You cannot divorce wisdom and sagacity from realpolitik. This time the reluctant Congress, adrift and confused, failed the real-politik to be ultimately hijacked by the Saffron, waiting in the wings for an appropriate opportunity. Now the Anna Hazare team, being heavily manned by the Saffron cadres, has also in its midst hypocrites, who, as the word implies, two-faces, two-tongues and two-voices.
TWO LATEST STORIES
A high voltage story in India Today online (Aug. 28) talks of a controversial video report on Youtube, in which a close confidante of Anna Hazare, Swami Agnivesh talking to a central minister, purportedly advises the government to be tough with the fasting Gandhian. The Swami has forcefully denied the report and described it tobe doctored and concocted. In the video he reportedly addresses one as “Kapil” but now he stoutly denies the whole talk. The Anna group activist, Ms.KiranBedi, however asserts that the Swami has been caught on the camera. To quote the report, “Maharaj!Aaapinkoitnakyon deraheyhain, Maharaj”. It is fair to recall that Swami had developed differences with Anna on fast. Ms.Bedi added that, the Swami is “absolutely unethical and the footage has shocked us all and we are very uncomfortable.”
ROUTINE WORK OF THE VHP
What on the question of Saffron patronage had been catalogued in our earlier issue has been improved recently by Mr.PiyushSrivastava in the fortnightly referred to above. Mr. Ashok Singhal admitted in Lucknow on Aug. 29 that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) cadre had been involved in the Anna anti-corruption movement. Mr.Piyush added the assertion only confirmed speculation about the Saffron Parivar support to Anna. To quote Mr.Singhal: Members of the DharmYatraMahasangh had done an extremely good job. The wing of the VHP had opened stalls at RamlilaGround to offer food to over 20,000 people every day. Dismissing the suggestion that the VHP was trying to ride the piggyback on the unprecedented support for Anna, the VHP stalwart said: “It was routine work for his party.”
The truth is there is little surprising in the Saffron outfits hijacking of the Hazare wave. They are past masters in it. The piggyback politics is now the only way for Saffron as they no more enjoy popular support. If you brush up your memory, you would find that in 1974-75, the RSS-BJP combine had skyjacked the JP movement in similar fashion and reaped political fruits in abundance. Later on the movement launched by Mr.V.P.Singh was also successfully hijacked by the Saffron. It is not any secret. It is history.
The nadir in attempt to grab power was touched recently when the BJP chief, Mr.NitinGadkari publicly assured Anna that he was anxious to follow his footsteps.
THE KEYQUESTION?
The point is: Is Anna Hazare so simple-minded, so naïve, so immature to see through the Saffron game? Can he not read the between-the-lines meaning of this motivated support?
Why the anti-corruption crusader does not coolly realise that the plural Bharat would not be, and ought not to be, what it is today, if the Saffron, using him as a means, as a tool, as a ladder comes to power. Bharat had a glimpse of it during the NDA dispensation which gave Modi to plural nation as a Saffron model, as an ideal, as an icon. Does Anna want freaks galore in the country? Anna Hazare and his close confidantes ArvindKejriwal and KiranBediowe a cogent, comprehensive reply to their admirers and the cheated.
In independent India, the various scams, according to AFP cost the Indians a hefty amount of Rs. 910,603,234,300,000 which equals to $ 20.23 trillion. The company that Anna Hazare is currently keeping creates serious doubts about his success.
(The writer sincerely regrets his inability to procure prior permission of the AFP for the purpose of reference in this article to their admirably comprehensive report and its summary, prepared so laboriously for the cause so dear to the entire mankind.)