Author: Editorial
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: August 29, 2011
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/fast-and-future/838411/0
Anna Hazare was supposed to break his fast
at 10 am on Sunday, but in the event he - and everyone else - was kept waiting
while a member of his "team" made an interminable "mission
accomplished" speech. When it is something as hydra-headed and intangible
as corruption, however, it is difficult to imagine how victory could be defined
- and more, since the reduction of corruption is something that unites most
people, including those in Parliament, it puzzling why a milestone on the
way to reducing it should be seen as a matter of victory or defeat at all.
If there are real lessons to be taken away from the past ten days, one should
be that this is about more than the hubris of Team Anna or the leaden reactions
of UPA 2. It is about the emergence of an increasingly aware urban Indian,
and of the stability and responsiveness of the Indian constitutional system.
In the end, Team Anna's maximalist demands
- their bill, or an agitation - had to be dialled down; Parliament's right
to amend, make and pass legislation was reiterated; and the Indian people
got to see their political leaders, across party lines, speak firmly about
the many variants of corruption that affect this country's citizens, and about
what could be done to deal with them. In the debates in the Lok Sabha and
the Rajya Sabha, MPs from the two main national parties did not respond to
the anti-politician mood that was visible onstage at the Ramlila Maidan; but
those from smaller parties were not so restrained. Again, Sharad Yadav had
a pointed defence of Parliament- "27 MPs have spent time behind bars
and this House saw to it they were put behind bars" - and Lalu Prasad
said "the Constitution should not be bypassed one bit." In these
words from backward-class leaders who emerged from a previous agitation, we
see the power of Parliament and Constitution to represent and to inspire.
That, with the flexibility of Indian politics, is what has been underlined
this week.
MPs must not waste this moment, but get to
the business of governance. And, above all, of reform, for that is the third
great lesson of the Anna moment: that legislature and executive have not being
doing enough. The construction of a grievance redressal system, and the strengthening
of CBI independence, should be buttressed by reforms that empower and address
the aspirations of urban India, ignored for seven years. That, then, would
be victory.
