Friday, August 26, 2011

Reply to another "open letter" to Anna Hazare, this time by Rajdeep Sardesai


The entire letter does not deserve a reply. Hence i scanned out the key points and replied in red.

Dear Anna,
In every battle there must come a time when you must call a halt. That time may well be approaching. The halt will surely come. In my opinion, It should come if Jan Lokpal Bill is taken well by the polity
The real danger though now is that a peaceful, non-violent movement runs the risk of being overwhelmed by what Dr Ambedkar, the great constitutionalist, described a fast unto death as, by the "grammar of anarchy." It was his opinion. Not necessarily be bought by others. Instead of acting on the matter, the idea is to have him break his fast. This is the problem with polity.
There have been some signs of this in the last 48 hours that are truly worrying. The gherao of the homes of Members of Parliament may be visually appealing, but it encourages an anti-politician 'sab neta chor hai' rhetoric that could further destroy faith in parliamentary democracy. Enough faith loss has taken place due to scams. Let some be restored with taking up of the Jan Lokpal bill because, clearly, that  is what the nation wants. The increasingly strident language being used by certain members of Team Anna - a term which creates the regrettable impression of you being surrounded by a coterie - is to be best avoided at a time when a rational dialogue is called for. Agree
Only two days ago, a colleague of mine was assaulted in the heart of the capital by a drunk biker gang waving the Tricolour and chanting 'I am Anna' slogans. Not related. Hooligans will be hooligans. Their behaviour should not be considered an indication of public sentiment
The sight of gangster Abu Salem's girlfriend Monica Bedi parading Mumbai's streets with an Anna cap should convince you of the dangers of reducing the fight against corruption to a well-choreographed prime time TV spectacle. Now I am baffled. Simply because someone tries to hike its TRP, the movement is bad?
But to ram through a Bill that has been hanging fire for decades within the space of a few days without a sustained and truly inclusive dialogue with all stakeholders would be self-defeating. There has been enough dialogue over the last two months. See where it got us.
Why not, for example, get the government to commit to a special session of Parliament in six to eight weeks on an amended Lok Pal Bill so that a new, well-considered law becomes a Diwali gift to the nation? Let the Government commit to this. Till now, nobody has. Else, there would not have been a movement on 16th August.
Post-script: I have framed a picture of our meeting earlier this week. The caption reads: "When zero met hero!". India is not Anna, nor is Anna India, but you are now an icon for millions. Please don't allow a personality cult to shadow your ultimate gift of common sense. Asking for removal of corruption amounts to loss of common sense? I see a lack of common sense in the statement.

1 comment:

  1. "The sight of gangster Abu Salem's girlfriend Monica Bedi parading Mumbai's streets with an Anna cap should convince you of the dangers of reducing the fight against corruption to a well-choreographed prime time TV spectacle"...I think all Rajdeep meant was that weirdos taking up prime time for stupid antics is diluting the cause, as it is diverting the attention, not that the movement itself was bad.
    If there is an article that does not deserve a response, it is Arundhati Roy's :)

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