India needs sustainable political and governance reform, not 'Mr India'-type prime-time populism
Sanjaya Baru / New Delhi Apr 11, 2011, 00:39 IST
Anna Hazare got his timing right, as Kumar Ketkar, a distinguished journalist from Mumbai, put it. Considering this was obviously planned as a television-based mobilisation of middle-class India, pitching it between the cricket World Cup and the Indian Premier League series was perfect timing. Even as Mr Hazare fasted, a large number of his supporters joined him between meals, at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, and around TV dinners in urban India.
Mr Hazare’s message and medium struck a universal chord and he captured widespread anger against the lackadaisical response of the entire political class to the genuine revulsion against corruption and crony capitalism. But this is not the first time Mr Hazare has fasted. The last time he did so, in 2007, sitting somewhere in Maharashtra worrying about farmers’ suicides, national television showed no interest. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent his colleague Prithviraj Chavan, then a minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office, with a glass of lime juice and assurances. A media strategy was put in place in case the situation got out of hand. The media didn’t take note and Mr Hazare drank up the juice.
Jantar Mantar was different. Mr Hazare and his strategists planned well. Not only did they get the timing and place right, they also got the medium and the message right. This was not about farmers in Vidarbha. This was about people like us paying bribes and watching all the bribe takers in page 3 parties!
The Hazare brigade also offered a solution that much of middle class India feels comfortable with — an all-powerful superman like Rajinikanth, called Lok Pal — a “Mr India”, so to speak!
Given the mood of the middle class, few in the media were willing to ask how a new “Lok Pal”, however empowered, could banish corruption when so many of the existing institutions have not done that. (A few voices have begun to be finally raised and, hopefully, these will find an echo in the days to come.) It is easily assumed by many that the fact that the Lok Pal Bill has been debated since the mid-1960s with no action suggests the entire political class has conspired for over four decades to keep “Mr India” under lock and key like the Count of Monte Cristo!
Could there have been a different reason? After all, in these four decades every national party, from the Congress to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left Front, had enough influence in New Delhi to have brought such a Bill to Parliament. Why didn’t successive governments do that? The simplistic NGO view that there has been a conspiracy of silence and inaction on the part of the entire political class is just that — simplistic.
After all, several states have enacted the Lok Ayukta Act. What has been the experience of Lok Ayuktas? If India’s politicians and political parties have been willing to live with a Lok Ayukta, why should they conspire against a Lok Pal? Is it possible, one might ask, that there could be other valid reasons? Moreover, the fact is that Narendra Modi’s Gujarat has no Lok Ayukta. Yet, many people testify to the fact that there is less corruption in Gujarat than Karnataka – both ruled by the BJP – where a distinguished person holds the office of Lok Ayukta.
But votaries of Lok Pal may reject the Lok Ayukta comparison. In fact, they would say, that is precisely why India needs a “Mr India” kind of Lok Pal. That’s a pity. For governance to improve, good politics must be in command. Populism mobilises people; politics empowers them.
What India needs every now and then is governance reform in the existing institutions of the state. This must become the focus of policy for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in its remaining three years in office. Incidentally, the UPA’s national common minimum programme of 2004 did commit itself to the enactment of a Lok Pal Bill. So, in getting the legislation through, UPA-II will really be implementing one of the few “unfinished” agenda items of UPA-I.
Chances are the negotiations on a draft Lok Pal Bill could see acrimonious exchanges and the government could be placed on the defensive repeatedly, and not necessarily for the right reasons. Thus, anticipating this possibility, and in a bid to revive its badly damaged reputation, boost the sagging morale of the government and the ruling coalition and, finally, give itself a positive agenda for the remaining term, UPA-II must come forward with an agenda for governance reform.
A good starting point would be the reports of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission (SARC), chaired by Veerappa Moily. Comprehensive reform of the government, the judiciary, and legislative and electoral processes will re-energise India. All this requires credible and effective political and administrative leadership.
In his very first address to the nation, on June 24, 2004, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: “When I chose to enter public life I did so because I was convinced that our democracy needs more professionals to become more engaged and active in politics. I, therefore, now appeal to each one of you to also participate in our public life so that governments at all levels — central, state and local - are all constantly put on notice and not just tested once in five years. When I travel across the country I am always heartened by the increasing number of young and idealistic people I meet who work with voluntary organisations, empowering the dispossessed and the dis-enfranchised. We shall make effective use of the resources of the civil society to improve the quality of governance and delivery of important public services.”
Civil society has the right and responsibility to seek a responsive state, not shun politics, nor seek to replace it through prime-time populism. That way, as Dr B R Ambedkar said in the Constituent Assembly in 1949, lies anarchy.
The author's assumption that the public lapped up Mr. Hazare's protest because of a. timing between two cricket events, b. a Mr.India type of solution and c. aversion to politics - is a downright insult to civil society . Such a system has been in existence in USA for decades, without any Mr.India or Rajinikanth type of person! This is just a figment of the imagination of the author, couched in clever words. Coming from a media person, it is neither surprising nor effective.
Sanjay Baru was PM 's media advisor, so we now know who has is misadvisng PM against Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement with Janlokpal bill .utter Shamelessness
The article attempted to present a balanced perspective. Emotionally charged up readers may criticise the article as one from a Congress loyalist. However the fact remains that our country was failed both by bureaucrats and politicians ( barring a small number of upright ones). In the given situation sensitizing the government about the public mood was a necessity. What good the law would do, let's see. Certainly attempts to root out corruption may make beginning, either with or without the propsed law. That way, the agitation would serve a larger cause.
Sanjaya Baru was the Official Spokesman and Media Advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He is still sucking up to the powers that be, in the hope of another plum assignment.
Finally a mainstream paper taking a critical look at the Anna crusade... i agree with the views of Mr. Baru. But the way our polity has turned out today, probably there is no other option but to override some of the basic principles... this is thin ice really - so if any of the committee members bring in their ulterior agenda, this solution will turn out worse than the problem.
What i find amazing is the "simplistic" views expressed in the comments section. If world were so black & white, life would have been super simple...
Mr. Baru has been writing in support of the Congress - but in fairness he does appear to be among the more balanced writers in mainstream English media today!
Jai71
Everyone who reads it understand that the writer is a former MM Singh employee. So he is faithful to the Congress. These people are trying to stop a law that has the power to punish politicians. So they are trying to somehow stop this change.
Mr Baru has come out of PMO and it shows. He loves to defend the hopeless record of governance and uses politicians language to drive his point.
E.g. in last para "Civil society has the right and responsibility to seek a responsive state, not shun politics, nor seek to replace it through prime-time populism". Civil society has never shun politics, its the politicians who turn away from civil society after gaining office. Civil society does not want to replace politics with prime time they want to create a more powerful system than a Lokayukt. The timing has nothing to do with world cup or IPL, infact the opposite is true, if Anna would have continued his fast, then IPL rating would have gone down.
I'd love to see all the fundamental changes in governance and politics you recommend / suggest / believe to be 'kosher', get implemented through the power of your articles.
A hit-n-run article, really.
Neither Cong or BJP has been able to explain why it wasn't passed so far nor have they said it wasn't important enough.
Even if the agitation is well-timed, what's wrong with that?
Oh yeah, 'in 2007, sitting somewhere in Maharashtra worrying about farmers' suicides' was an important issue, maybe not for the author.
Ridicules Anna for an allegedly failed agitation in 2007 but no mention of the ones where he successfully exposed Maharashtra state ministers and they had to resign.
The author of this article is a Congress stooge. He was the personal media adviser to Manmohan Singh in his previous term. He is close personal friend of Mr. Singh. The parents of the author too have held important bureaucratic positions in the Congress Government. Now you know why he is biased against the Jan Lokpal Bill!!
The government needs to think through very deeply the consequences of what happened last week. It will be a cruel irony if the proposed legislation ultimately fails to pass the test of judicial scrutiny.
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