Professional Documents
Culture Documents
This hijacking of the issue has weakened the cause of the fight against corruption due to many reasons. Corruption, which was becoming the issue of the people, lost its strength due to the involvement of the political party. A fact substantiating this statement is that the BJP has already lost its credibility in a larger section of the countrys literate society on the issue of corruption due to the supposed complicity with that evil of one of its State governments. Its legitimacy as a crusader against corruption carries not much impact because of its support to B.S. Yeddyurappas government in Karnataka about which the common people has a feeling that it is a government which does not carry a pristine record against corruption; though the BJP justifies its continuance in power there on technical grounds, it appears to have failed to influence the literate sections of society. Due to the involvement of the BJP and the failure of Baba Ramdev to provide any concrete roadmap and strong alternative, with the bifurcated efforts by Ramdev and Anna Hazare things have slipped out of the hands of the civil society organisations. The Congrees as a party too has succeeded in shifting the focus from corruption to other fields as the immoral role of the BJP in the fight against corruption, Baba Ramdev and his associates financial standings, and the concept of a parallel government. These as such have not helped the cause of the movement, and due to these developments and politicisation of the whole game, the corruption issue has shifted from the public domain to the unknown zone with the Congress at least for some time succeeding in suppressing the inflation issue. The role of the BJP too is full of criticism. It should have refrained from entering the territory of the civil society. It could reap political dividends in due course if there was any windfall but as of now it is losing due to the Karnataka issue. The last few months have therefore brought a new dimension to the Indian polity where civil society organisations are attempting to create a wider democratic space for the common people. The Congress too has seen the power of the people as exhibited by the Anna Hazare team, but unlike the BJP its objective is to suppress the movement; otherwise its long-term goal of using power for its own sake may be jeopardised. It has another plan of running the country in a democratic-feudal manner in which it has succeeded so far, though a major threat to this in recent times has come from such movements. These dangers are explicit. The civil society movement and the issue of corruption have been weakened with the recent turn of events. Baba Ramdevs acts based on inexperience should not be repeated by the Anna Hazare team. They need to remember they have to re-establish the civil society movement and work for a society where people in a real fashion enjoy the democratic space. The burden of responsibility therefore lies more on Anna Hazare, and his next acts including the expected fast should be organised such as to make the movement immune from those people and political parties which may obstruct the emergence of a true civil society in the country. Dr Vivek Kumar Srivastava is the Vice-Chairman, CSSP, Kanpur.