Author: Jaya Jaitly
Publication: Rediff.com
Date: August 19, 2011
URL: http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-read-jaya-jaitlys-open-letter-to-anna-hazare/20110819.htm
Annasaheb, I have known of your good work
in Ralegaon Siddhi in Maharashtra for the past 30 years. Most Maharashtrians
know you well, but this generation of youth has not been fed much information
of 'good works' by the media.
One has the utmost respect for Gandhians,
who still try to live by those principles.
Being one such person, you, today lead the
movement that first brought a handful of Magsaysay Award winners together
to support Kiran Bedi's legitimate, but unsuccessful mission to be appointed
Chief Information Commissioner in the interest of Right To Information activists.
It has now become a movement, fuelled by pent
up anger about corruption. Obviously, it is not that there was no corruption
earlier, but the very extent and brazenness of corruption these days, and
the pressure of an angry public along with information pushed out by the media,
finally exploded.
However, there are two issues that need to
be highlighted: Your organising group should understand that it was the government's
ineptness from day one, in the manner of engagement with you and yoga guru
Baba Ramdev on how to tackle rampant corruption that added to public indignation.
Until then, people were mostly spectators.
More importantly, people from all walks of life want convincing ways -- any
kind of way at all -- to end corruption.
As the government needs to listen to what
the common man has to say, you too need to listen to a crucial aspect of the
message: they are not fighting in support of your specific Jan Lokpal Bill;
they are supporting your fight against corruption.
One does not automatically translate into
the other. May I humbly suggest, that to make the government more flexible,
your team show some flexibility too?
Your spokespersons need to explain why they
cannot pressure individual members of Parliament further, as well as political
parties and the Parliamentary standing committee, to persuade them to adopt
your propositions and place amendments accordingly.
It is wrong to arrogate to yourselves the
power of presuming your bill is the best solution and your methodology the
only one leading to a satisfactory result.
You need to explain whether a fast to gather
crowds is more important than continuing meetings with those who represent
the political system across the board to pave the way forward. If your group
sets itself up as superior to any politician or party, you may go down the
wrong road.
Everyone wants a strong Lokpal Bill. Both
drafts (government and the joint drafting committee versions) have many flaws,
and need wider consultation with other eminent persons/organisations who have
addressed this problem and can suggest amendments.
The collective ego and obstinacy of your 'Team
Anna' should not get in the way of creating a draft that has been further
modified by an additional set of wise minds with as much integrity.
They can be from among the judiciary (if advocate
Prashant Bhushan will permit), the bureaucracy (if Kiran Bedi will permit)
other eminent public activists (if Arvind Kejriwal will permit) and political
party representatives (if the entire team permits).
Currently, your moves seem to be more populist than reasonable, while the
governments' are more bureaucratic than political. Neither will get us anywhere.
Clearly, there is no way the Jan Lokpal Bill
is going to take the place of the Central Bureau of Investigation, Central
Vigilance Commissioner and other such agencies. Is your team not prepared
to accept an option of asking for a totally-independent CVC and CBI, apart
from a modified but effective bill?
Why not do credible (even radical) things
with institutions we already have rather than propose an outfit that appears
to be a non-workable monster. If the public in support of your movement is
not given options, it will be fooled into supporting your bill blindly. That
is misleading, unfair, and arrogant.
Please forgive me for presuming to offer some
suggestions, but I am not prepared to deify anyone, and everyone has a voice
in a democracy.
I am exercising mine; based on some aspects
that have troubled me from the day your action began at Jantar Mantar.
There is a major question of inclusiveness,
acceptability and credibility not being addressed here. I do not mean the
credibility of your group or the government, but the credibility of those
like myself, who have fought corruption all my life from inside a political
party and outside through demonstrations, campaigns etc, for the past 25 years.
Excuse me for personalising this, but it is
merely as an example of what many honest political activists are feeling.
Being in politics does not automatically mean one is dishonest.
Take my instance: I have been entangled by
the Congress/United Progressive Alliance government in a bogus corruption
case in which the first hearing is still pending in a lower court for the
past five years.
The so-called 'incident' took place 11 years
ago. I thought of joining your platform at Jantar Mantar but saw what you
did to senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharti and others.
Michael Fernandes, brother of erstwhile Defence
Minister George Fernandes, whom you knew well, was not allowed on your platform
in Bangalore, despite the known integrity of the Fernandes family.
He is a 76-year-old former legislator, who
still uses an auto rickshaw or the metro while moving about. He fasted along
with your group, but was not welcomed on the platform, although a well-known
liquor company was distributing free mineral water there.
Not terribly Gandhian, I would say.
They do it out of loyalty to their party president
who led the campaign against him. Your entire team has taken part in programmes
in support of people who assisted the Congress in painting us corrupt.
Yet, sadly, you wrote to Congress president
Sonia Gandhi (an unexamined part of Bofors history) asking for fair treatment
not too long ago.
Today, I would like to be at the forefront
of your campaign against corruption, but you would shun those of us who carry
such bogus taints.
Are you going to presume that all those accused
by the Congress of corruption are indeed so? How sure are you of the credentials
of those who form your crowds? How many of them have never given or taken
a bribe? Can you certify to their integrity? Is it necessary at all? If this
is the attitude now, how will the Jan Lokpal administrators as proposed by
you be free of bias?
Your system of shunning people who are in
political life from your stage, and accusing all politicians in Parliament
of not wanting to accept your bill alone is a dangerous form of de-politicisation.
A non-political prime minister, and a non-political
Sonia Gandhi, dealing with anti-politician groups like yours may leave an
ugly undemocratic land for vested interests to inhabit.
Yours, with sincerity and respect
Jaya Jaitly
- The writer is a former president of the
Samata Party
