Activist Anna Hazare is riding a growing sense of anger in India. It’s time for the Congress Party to put the country’s interests first and step aside.
Imagine this scenario. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh puts his government on the line, as he did in July 2008 over the Indo-US nuclear deal. This time, his bête noire is not the Left Front, but the ‘People’s Front’ in the shape of Anna Hazare-led civil society.
Singh says that he will stick to his guns and will neither compromise on the Lokpal Bill issue nor on his government’s position over the increasingly vociferous and popular civil society. As governance becomes impossible, he tenders his government’s resignation. The opposition is taken aback and falls into disarray. The Left, meanwhile, doesn’t want to be seen to be on the same page as the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, so the 15th Lok Sabha is dissolved and fresh elections are called.
Now imagine that Anna’s advisors pressure him to take the plunge into politics and he forms a political party to contest the elections. Let’s name this political party the India Against Corruption Party (IACP). The newly-launched group contests all 543 Lok Sabha seats with people’s money – funds collected from Indian citizens. The new party reaches an electoral understanding with Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who has a pan-Indian following running into the millions. This new electoral alliance declares Anna and Ramdev its prime ministerial and deputy prime ministerial candidates.
Riding a wave of popular anger, the IACP sweeps the polls and wins over 500 seats. All opponents lose their deposits. Even the opposition BJP is reduced to single-digit representation in parliament.
At the swearing in ceremony, the new prime minister names his cabinet, which effectively chooses itself like the pre-cricket World Cup team. Kiran Bedi becomes the new Home Minister, Arvind Kejriwal the External Affairs Minister, Shanti Bhushan the Defence Minister and his son Prashant Bhushan the Finance Minister.
Implausible? The mounting pressure on the United Progressive Alliance has seen the government and prime minister’s credibility fall to dismal levels. Singh now seems to have two options for dealing with the outpouring of support for Hazare: Meekly throw in the towel and accept his Jan Lokpal Bill, or stick to his guns and take Hazare and company head on.
Both these options are unlikely to resolve the underlying crisis, meaning governance may well become impossible. If the prime minister exercises the first option, apart from losing face, the government will also make civil society even more powerful. Such a move would also suggest that the UPA government is interested above all in clinging to power. If Singh goes for the second option, it will inevitably bring the wheels of governance grinding to a halt as the opposition-assisted civil society’s mass protests will only grow in number.
The only way out of this impasse is for Singh to tender his government’s resignation, citing governance difficulties. With the entire opposition lined up against the UPA government, the best bet for the Congress-led government is to resign and make way for an alternative. If an alternative government can eventually be formed, then it will have to deal with Anna Hazare. If no alternative government is possible, which is a strong possibility, then early elections are the only solution.
It is at this juncture that the Hazare-led civil society would confront trial by fire. Civil society would then be faced with choosing to support a political party that it believed would carry out its agenda, or else do the honours itself. Either way, it would be better for the nation if such contentious issues could be resolved once and for all.
The UPA II government has itself to blame for the mess it is in. It has lurched from one crisis to another in the last 27 months, and Manmohan Singh is a shadow of the leader he was in his first term. The list of blunders is long and well known to every Indian who has been following political developments. Before the government is forced out by countrywide protests or voted out in parliament, it would be better and more dignified for it to bow out of office. If the UPA came back – under Singh or Rahul Gandhi – then it could do so with a clean slate
So far, Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have acted like typical politicians. They now need to act like statesmen who are thinking about the best interests of the next generation.
Photo Credit: World Economic Forum
Reddit
Digg
StumbleUpon
Delicious
Technorati
Yahoo
Google
Plurk
Michael
“So far, Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have acted like typical politicians. They now need to act like statesmen who are thinking about the best interests of the next generation” LOL Politicians are politicians and no amount of Shining India is gonna change this fact! India is a sham democracy and a failed state!
Larry
“prime minister’s credibility fall to dismal levels” is because Singh is a Western lackey!
Thomas
Manmohan Singh needs to step down because he’s nothing more than a western stooge puppet with the charisma of cardboard!
bhupinder
india is basically very immotional people,majority of people forget to next day, congresi have huge fund, money and media but awakening in middle class and totally eroding of image,can defeat congresi but india is still very magic land,,in tamil nadu,orissa,bangal,,kerala,,like state, where no one care what happen,to delhi, they dnot care, they are more interest in challenging their own eneny politics,,future of any party is quite uncertain, media,,money change the whole scene of nation
Sharad
This won’t work. Despite the wave of popular anger, the IACP will not sweep the polls because of EVMs.
Kapur
Ur publication is also subject to similar conditions of not putting any abusive derogatory
And inflammatory
Remarks about others Anna and company
Are the so called honest people that includes u too Rajeev sharma
Madhukar
I analyse the current situation as : 1.Team Anna has made it clear that they are not against congress or UPA Govt, 2.Anna is not aspiring for fighting election or becoming PM, 3.BJP is a weak opposition & can’t provide alternate govt, 4.image of PM & Sonia is still not damaged,5.congress in mejority & UPA in power,6. Rahul is learning & PM candidate for 2014, 7.Kapil Sibbal & team is a big failure in handling Team Anna in over confidence.In fact this is a classic example of what happens when Lawyers(karkuns) start running the country. Do we need lawyers to tell what constitution says? we need them to show the way out, instead they started putting fingers on rules.
Hence,no need to UPA or PM to resign. but country & espetially youth are looking up at Rahul Gandhi with hopes & has a clean slate to start an inning.He should: 1.show courage to remove Kapil Sibbal,Manish Tiwari,Digvijay singh,Salman Khurshid, Chidambaram,Rashid Alvi, Ambica Soni who helped in damaging the situation & ultimatly image of congress.2.Apologige the nation & take control of the situation,3. open dialogue with team Anna with fresh new open approach alongwith the help of his young brigade & start taking decisions instead of forming committees.this will send a strong messege to the common man that he means bussiness!this will put BJP ALSO ON backfoot & team anna without confrontation.Anna has already moved thr entire nation so he has a readymade plateform created to take it ahead !
SupportANNAHAZARE
I think the author Rajiv is very anti Gov in his opinion and imagination. Firstly Congress was voted into power and the person who they voted for was Sonia Gandhi. We all know what happened next and we ended up with Manmohan Singh. He Is a great man, fantastic economist with great ideas but not a politician nor a leader. But then looking at other past PM in India I could say worse about them. I think we need to be fair when we critics the PM. Who are we comparing him too? he is not perfect but then he is not worse than other previous PM either. I think people have over the top expatiations from him.
There is a positive scenario that can play out here in the next few weeks. If Anna Hazari sticks to his guns and the masses of India from all walks give their full support, the GOV will be forced to accept the terms and conditions of the Bill. After all this is a democracy run by the people, they are the stake holders and they have the right to dictate their wish to have this bill drafted and how it would be enforced. The Politicians including the PM are put in power by the people not the other way round. PM or GOV does not get to dictate to the people in a democracy .
Siddharth
This article is very idealistic in nature and does not conform itself to the current situation. First of all the current anti corruption movement isn’t so big that it justifies the resignation of an entire central government. It isn’t as big as the 1960′s French revolution or the Arab Spring movements. And also the author is being completely naive when he talks about the PM. Manmohan Singh is a very able economist who isn’t a politician or an aggressive leader. But under him India has grown nearly ten fold in every aspect. India has clocked an average growth rate of over 7% for the past decade, US and India are the closest in their history. Also we have become a de facto sixth recognized nuclear power. Yes corruption is a very big issue that needs to be tackled. But the author can’t unjustly put the entire blame on the PM. And also in the current situation we need someone who deserves to be there. And Manmohan Singh deserves to be there.
Girish
PM Manmohansingh must own up responsibility for all the corruption that has taken place. he is advancing excuse after excuse. It has caused double digit inflation and hard landing of economy.
All misisters and politicians in power must submit to truth serum and lie detector tests periodically all over the world. Otherwise we will have aftershocks one to n all over world and end to civilisation as we know.
Tushar Kulkarni
Congress is no more a Democratic party. Congress is a Company owned by Gandhi Family & All Singh & Sibbals are mere employed as Servants in that company.
P RAJESH RAO
Why should the Govt. tender fresignation? Instead it can bring in a Jan Lokpal Bill with some modification ( exclude Juduiciary). Afterall only six issues were panding agreement.Include allothers under Lokpal. Simultaneously take other steps , like removal of dual pricing in everything and give cash as aid.
The fact is that existing machinary of fighting corruption does not work. Bringing it under Lokpal(CVC, CBI etc) these institutions is meaning less. Instead initially let them work under Govt. and as and when Lokpal has its staff and found effective, the Govt.agencies can be dismantled.
However this will work only if the ruling party has a change of heart and works for the good of the nation. Maybe Dr. Trehan can replace the defective heart of the Congress.