Team Anna Differences, Movement & Politics

Country has witnessed a series of scams, irregularities and abuse and influence of position to gain undue advantages during the regime of congress during the past eight years. Its is not as if irregularities were not there earlier but these irregularities reached to its peak during the tenure of congress. All due credit in this regard goes to the supreme court, institutions like CAG and the civil societies who brought the issue of corruption to be discussed and debated in the public domain. I should specially mention here the unique movement India

observed under the leadership of anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare and his team. This campaign raised a hope of a corruption free, public-centric, welfare state among the commoners who were depressed and dismal with the corruption in every kith and corner of the society. The campaign received huge support from the public and also made initial success in the form of CBI investigation of CWG and 2G scams. During, this very moment, the Team Anna realized that the current laws were not that efficient and effective to prosecute the power centers of the country and were vulnerable to be misused and abused by the government. Consequently, Team Anna decided to formulate a law to be presented before the

parliamentarians and request them to enact it. In the process, they approached several law experts, formers judges, and leading senior advocates of the country and introduced

JANLOKPAL. The JANLOKPAL would comprise of the ombudsman where the public can lodge complain against the corruption in the government and it has its own investigating wing, that would investigate the matter within a stipulated time and would prosecute the accused. In spite of the regular commitments and assurance of the government and the opposition to enact a strong law, government never seemed serious towards this and always had a desire to postpone and delay the matter. This led Anna Hazare to fast in August 2011, December 2011 and then in August 2012 with little to avail. The government seemed to ignore the demands of

Team Anna and meanwhile they begin foul practices to bring disrepute and dishonor to the members of Team Anna on the hands of government agencies. Contrary to the anticipation of the government, these caused a major unrest and disbelieve over the government intentions among the public. At the end of the fast in August 2012, Anna Hazare decided to provide a political alternative to the public and this has sparked a debate over whether Team Anna should venture into direct electoral politics or not.

During, this past two years, many splits sparked among Team Anna itself. Firstly, Swami Agnivesh was out from the team on the allegation of his alliance with the ruling party and he was supposed to be a congress mole. Subsequently, P V Rajagopal and Rajinder Singh parted their way apart from Team Anna on the pretext that the movement is going political. Lastly, Mufti Shamoon Qasmi was banned from the Team as he was also found to be leaking the inside information. After the announcement of the formation of the political party, most of the Team Anna members expressed their dissent including the likes of Kiran Bedi, Sunita Godara, Akhil Gogoi, Medha Patkar, Santosh Hedge and many of the active supports of India Against Corruption. This all has caused a chaos and confusion among the minds of the public and it is sure to benefit and provide some relief to the corrupt political class.

I will bring a common observation during the whole movement that Team Anna was never united in one sense in terms of its demands; with everyone from the Team expressing his/her own personal ideas rather than their demand as a team. Their justification was that they have allowed personal freedom. While everyone in the team was a leader in their own struggle and they had a name and repute associated with them, they so often had clash of their egos. Everyone was interested to be in the limelight but a few. Do I need to tell that when a group is campaigning for a certain cause, there must be an internal discipline and responsibility among the members of the group and no one should utter a word against the common goal

despite of their personal dissent with the demands? The key is to develop the TEAM SPIRIT. Working as a team may be difficult; one cant attain all his personal demand but have to work out for a common cause for the benefit of the society if they really care for it. Recently, there has been continuous buzz about the Team Anna going kejriwal-centric, what a crap! Until and unless there is some concrete formation on the ground, one must ensure that everything goes smooth and without any hurdles. Its Arvind sir doing the job, at least at a point someone has to lead. A group of people on the same line cant go in a similar direction; there should be the one to direct and others to follow. The entire new set-up is just in the nascent stage, so to criticize it would be to salt a just born baby. Allow him some time; he had displayed commendable leadership qualities. We could fully criticize him at least let us see the structure of the statue to be raised from his wet mud.

With immense respect to Anna Hazare, I could say that he is not an ideal leader for the group and he could be best as a mentor. Anna Hazare has a huge repute and experience as an anti-corruption crusader but this time he is supposed to lead a group of the people who are of too vast intellect and understanding than him. Moreover, the cause is not as simple as opposing the corruption of ministers or officers but to frame a law and to constitute a whole body of investigation and prosecution corresponding to that very law. There are technicalities and issues involved which should be tackled with knowledge and intellect of the experts, not with the sanity of a seer.

With the announcement of the political party many have criticized the move, and have logic that it would end the movement. I would like to draw the attention of such critiques towards our freedom struggle. Swaraj party, established as Congress-Khilafat Swarajya party was formed in India in 1923 by a group of Congress leaders unsatisfied with Gandhian policies that sought greater self-government and political freedom for the Indian people from the British

Raj. This group was determined to participate in the legislative assemblies elections though it couldnt master a grand opening. On the advice of Gandhi, the two groups decided to remain

in the Congress but to work in their separate ways. The congress as a whole decided to participate in the elections lately in 1937. The entire point is that why a movement cant run along a political party! I suppose that every social movement aimed to change the character of politics in India is in itself political. The crux is that the aim of the party should not be just winning the elections but to represent the public to its fullest extent. I just hope people get over the gloomy scepticism and welcome the new political party, that is promising a new political ground and the party should continue with its movement bringing a new meaning to the politics not rajniti but lokniti.