What is the history that’s been made today ? Members of Parliament will be unmindful of people’s view, leave alone needs, unless the people are led by some real social-welfarist; or a good-samaritan who believes in his goodness but may not have more than a nebulous vision for the society he believes he represents. Or by a charlatan.
The many twists and turns, the tamaasha, the foregrounding of ‘youth’ in Parliament and in the much larger society, the media-mayhem for almost two weeks, the Central Government’s attempts to hold off the inevitable capitulation, the Opposition’s attempts to score points in the joust, everyone’s hope to avoid being worsted, crumbling edifices and weak moves to prevent a collapse using pest-ridden scaffoldings, a fearful sheltering behind rules… all this and the hard-working back-channels have established beyond doubt that Indian Democracy is as spurious as it can get without crossing over into a mafia state.
People pay taxes, direct and indirect, and fill the treasuries and the governments takes loans from every possible source, only to enable the politicians and the businessmen to siphon away the largest portion of the resources. In turn people make do with small pickings from dubious sources using dubious methods. Those who can not do that live in ways we will not want to imagine. They die in ways we will never be able to imagine.That is the status of social life and political life in this country.
At statutory intervals the governments change. Nothing else does.
Till the average good man or an above average charlatan decides to manipulate the system. This is certainly not an ideal context in which to live and script history. But that is precisely what’s been happening.For 64 years.
Will the Anna Hazare phenomenon be a defining moment for India? Or will it be a bit like Indira Gandhi’s 1969 coup against the older Congressmen; or Jai Prakash Narain’s Total Revolution that created an all too brief interregnum in post-independence Indian political history; or like NT Rama Rao’s political foray into Andhra Pradesh politics; or like Manmohan Singh’s entry into politics under P.V. Narasimha Rao’s umbrella; or like Kanshi Ram’s BSP?
Won’t governments automatically work for the people without flashing chimeras in order to win elections? Will India always need Anna Hazare-like figures? From time to time, someone who’ll get too difficult to handle and fearing a backlash from his support-bases the Governments and Oppositions beat strategic retreats?
The pressure that Anna and the people built up was difficult to handle only because the “system” was “ Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike” (Alexander Pope). What happens if the hard-lines hardened further and the government did what Indira Gandhi did in 1975? Please be aware… that what happened today was no honourable resolution.; only a pitiable or indeed shameful display of the self-preservation instinct.
After the celebrations, gentlemen, ,all too short I dare-say, will have to begin a real soul-searching. Otherwise the country—all 100 crores of us—will be facing hard times and facts. And harsh acts.
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