It’s very amusing to watch congress leaders and pro congress journalists seething in anger on Anna for his appeal to vote against congress. They are alleging that appealing voters to vote against congress means Team Anna has become a political group trying to benefit corrupt leaders and communal outfits like RSS,BJP etc. They are hand-in-glove with RSS and has become their Proxy. It is quite ironical that for Congress, whosoever speaks against them and their Corruption, becomes Pro RSS as if being RSS member is a bigger anti-national activity than glorifying Osama Bin Laden(one of the biggest enemies of India) by calling him “Laden ji” and expressing deep regret for denial of proper burial to him(who was responsible for the death of several thousands of people) by US . In fact by publically calling their adversaries as Pro RSS, they want to blackmail their adversaries that as soon as they raise their voice against them(Congress), they will be labeled as Pro RSS and they would lose support of minorities and by such blackmailing they try to shut the mouth of all those speaking against them.
In the present case also, Congress is adopting similar ploy and is trying to blackmail Team Anna.They have let loose Digvijay to make an all out attack on Team Anna. He has been provoking and has been trying to blackmail Team Anna by making senseless allegations. He is saying that during Anna’s fast, crowd at Ramlila Maidaan, consisted of mainly RSS People. After, Pratibha Patil retires,BJP is going to project Anna as their Presidential candidate. Team Anna is against reservation for backward classes.By making such allegations, Digvijay, on the one hand, is trying to blackmail Team Anna that if you raise voice against us we will label you as anti minority and anti backwards and on the other hand, he is trying to divide the people against anti corruption movement into caste, creed and religion and thus weaken the movement against the corruption.
While, the criticism of Team Anna by Congress for their Appeal to Vote against Congress may be logical and expected; even some of his team members are not in concurrence on this issue. Justice Santosh Hegde, a key member of his team considered this appeal as avoidable as it may appear to be political in nature to large no. of people supporting their movement against corruption.
Is Anna being political in his appeal to voters to vote against the Congress during Hisar elections and in ensuing assembly elections in UP,Uttarakhand,Punjab etc? Well, making any appeal against any political class during any election, would naturally be considered as a political act. In the present case, however, before criticizing this alleged “political conduct” of Anna, we need to interpret his political appeal in the proper context. One must remember that at this point of time main agenda of Anna is to see to it that his mission of enactment of strong Lokpal Bill is accomplished in the winter session of Parliament. However, given the past track record of the Govt. on Lokpal Bill and the way the Govt. has moved so far on the issue, Team Anna has hardly any doubt that Govt. Would try its level best to dilute the main provisions of Lokpal Bill, which it has been demanding for during last several months. In order to dilute the provisions of Lokpal Bill, Parliament standing Committee has been trying to induct large no. of Pro Govt. civil society Groups in the process of drafting of the bill. The main mandate of these groups would be to oppose Team Anna and support Govt. viewpoint on Lokpal Bill. Also, in the standing committee, they have allowed several people having doubtful credentials on corruption and hence these people, in order to please ruling Party, would do their best to draft a very weak Lokpal Bill. Also, they would play political games involving MPs cutting across party lines so that Lokpal Bill doesn’t see the light of the day.
Given the above context, Team Anna knows it very well that if they remain quiet till commencement of winter session of the parliament , it would be too late for them. Anna Hazare a veteran social activist, during more than three decades of leading large no. of social movements against Governments of various political parties in Maharashtra, knows very well how to deal with political parties and their leaders. He knows that until political class is in real danger of losing power or facing backlash of the People or media against them, they won’t do what they are expected to do and hence for achieving the objectives of his movement, he need to deal with political class accordingly. Also, through his several years of experience of dealing with political class, he has become very pragmatic and smart strategist vis-à-vis accomplishment of his various missions at different points of time. Just see, during his fight with Govt. on Lokpal Bill at various stages, he has been always one step ahead of the Govt. Although, Govt tried to act smart with him, he always outsmarted them by thinking and acting ahead of the situation. He knew that despite assurances, Govt won’t pass a strong Lokpal Bill and hence he had threatened well in advance that he would go on indefinite fast, if Govt. dithered on its commitments. Also, he knew that govt would try to crush the movement through brutal use of force like what they did with Ramdev and in order to counter this possibility, he threatened to approach Supreme Court. He knew that Govt may try to break his fast-unto-death by force-feeding him and hence he warned that if Govt tried to do so, he would even stop drinking water during his fast. He knew that he would be denied Janatar-Mantar as the venue for fast and hence he bargained hard for a central location as the venue of fast and initially could bargain for JP Park(in the central part of Delhi) and then ultimately got Ramlila Maidaan, possibly the best location for this kind of occasion in terms of public gathering and coverage of the same by Media. He also knew that Govt would play some trick by asking them to sign an agreement along the dotted lines, which they would later use to rein in Team Anna like what they did with Ramdev in Ramlila Maidaan earlier in June and hence he refused to sign any such agreement. Also, he knew that he would be arrested before he could reach venue of fast and hence his team had taken video recording of his speech, which was immediately released to media as soon as he was arrested. When order for his release from Tihar was facilitated by the Govt., he refused to leave jail as he knew that he would be deported out of Delhi through some aircraft like what Govt had earlier done with Ramdev and hence until all his demands for the venue for fast and no. of days for using the venue was accepted by the Govt, he stayed put in Tihar. Also, when he realized that after eight days’ of fast, govt.may forcibly lift him from the venue in the midnight, he expressed this apprehension publically and as a result Govt had to change the strategy and publically deny such possibility. As a shrewd strategist, he decided to extract support of individual MPs from various political parties and Ministers publically by organizing “Dharna” and “Gherao” of their residences by the voters of their constituencies and by way of that he was able to exert pressure on various MPs,Ministers,Political Parties and the Govt. At the end, even though, govt facilitated breaking of his fast by passing a motion in the Parliament expressing support of the parliament, in principle, for strong Lokpal Bill; he declared publically that it wasn’t end of the battle. Given the attitude of the govt on Lokpal, they may have to launch few more battles before a strong Lokpal Bill is drafted and passed by the parliament and his recent move to appeal voters to vote against Congress in Hisar is the continuation of the same strategy. Here also, he seems to be following a very safe and effective move. By choosing Hisar, which even otherwise,Congress, most likely was going to lose, he has tried to ensure that his appeal to vote against congress politically remains effective and successful.
Given the above background, it is quite clear that in order to contend with street smart politicians, he is following a street smart strategy and by following the same he has outsmarted the govt,ruling and other political parties. Although, Congress party and its General secretary has been making all out attack against Anna, it is also a fact that this move has deeply disturbed them from within and in order to contain fall out of his appeal against Congress, the govt. has announced that they are going to surprise people by enacting a much more stronger Lokpal bill than expected and would be giving Lokpal the status of a constitutional body like Election Commission.Prime Minsiter has gone one step ahead by assuring that Govt. is willing to consider the proposal of “right to reject” provision as one of the electoral reforms.
In a nutshell, his appeal to vote against congress in Hisar and in ensuing elections in few more states seems to be working well towards fulfillment of his ultimate objective i.e drafting and enactment of a strong Lokpal Bill and to that extent his “means” seem to be serving his “end” well and for the same reason Anna is well justified in his strategy to appeal to the voters to vote against congress.
