It is your Tarantula’s personal conviction that our beloved PM is incapable of thinking politically much less dubiously. But given the set of people doing the back seat driving including veterans Pranab Mukherjee, Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, to name few, I feel Team Anna should have been more cautious. Given the situation, it is easy to subject Team Anna to armchair criticism but I do understand the sort of compulsions they would be having while racing against time.
Let us discuss few pitfalls.
1) Team agreed to limit the size of the crowd. How will they account for police in plain-clothes, hired goons of Govt. and Political parties of UPA who are bound to infiltrate in thousands with hidden weapons and outnumber the supporters before hand to prove that a) the movement is a violent one b) leave little scope to genuine supporters from participating c) create a L&O situation to help their hirers in taking strong measures including, in the worst scenario, imposition of Emergency?
2) How will they sustain their commitment that a) the movement will be peaceful b) no provocation and so on? Yes, genuine supporters would understand the situation and respect and abide by their appeal but infiltrators whose objective is contrary will surely provoke. Govt. estimates that this fast will go for four days or so. Does it not portend their action plan to crush within next 100 hours or so?
3) As Varun introduces Bill sometime today as scheduled, Govt. absolves itself of any responsibility if it does not pass through. Besides, Govt. will be very safe. I further understand that in the history of our Parliament not a single bill tabled by opposition ever got through. There is every reason to believe that the proposed Jan Lokpal Bill may fail to get through considering the long history of it since 1968 and at least ten failures so far which is marginally falls short of the number of Mahmud Ghazni’s failed campaigns. Team Anna runs the risk of facing the wrath of very same supporters who do not understand the political equations behind the bill which is not in the interests of any Politician or his/her cronies.
Let us not underestimate the group of sycophants. They will leave no stone unturned to derail the movement. They are down but not out! Gandhian behavior of Delhi police during the last two or three days is highly suspect if you consider the recent red carpet welcome given to Ramdev by Group of Ministers, how they prostrated, perhaps sought his blessings and then arrested during midnight and now carrying personal vendetta. How many of us vividly recall the Railway Strike in 1974 and how brutally it was crushed and wiped off from our memories by brilliant maneuver by late Indira Gandhi?
From Wikipedia:
1974 railway strike in India was the strike by workers of Indian Railways in 1974. The 20 days strike by 17 million workers is the largest known strike.
As President of the all India Railwaymen’s Federation George Fernandes led the strike. The strike commenced on 8 May 1974. The strike was brutally suppressed by Indira Gandhi government with thousands being sent to jail and losing their jobs. The strike was called off on 27 May 1974.
The very same bunch of GoMs will prepare a note and make PM read out aloud in both houses of Parliament saying: the action was unfortunate but unavoidable!
This might sound pessimistic but having gone through the comparable situation during 1970s I would keep my fingers crossed till the objective of the movement is met. I will be more than happy to be proved an incurable pessimist. One has to wait and see how things will unfold themselves. It would be one small first step but will it be giant leap for India?
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