A Lost Cause?

When Shri Anna Hazareji began his fast unto death on the 5th some thoughts began to nag me. First, I thought all these candle carrying middle-class urban protesters would disperse sooner than later without achieving very much as happened in the aftermath of the tragic 26/11 attack. Second, I thought the government might not give in because it knew that those protesting did not belong to the well nurtured and protected vote banks. Third, I knew that many English speaking intellectuals or bleeding hearts for our revered parliamentary democracy would cry foul and repeat the same old mantra; ' If you want to change the system, fight and win an election, sit in the Lok Sabha and do what you have to. Fourth, many would suddenly remember that the Jan Lok Pal would become a tyrant and nothing would move as civil servants and politicians/ministers would be frightened into administrative paralysis to take any decision lest an invetigation was launched against them. But perhaps because of the turmoil in the Arab world and daily news reports of how even dictatorial regimes found it difficult to use force to quell such demonstrations and more so because of the elections to the state assemblies in five states, the Central Government decided to give in on the fourth day but not without first making noises about the supremacy of the parliament and the constitution. Some young columnists have also writen in the same vein but I know that they dont remember how Mrs Gandhi trreated all these pillars of democracy in June 1975 because they were still in primary school. The reason why a person like Anna took this unprecedented step at this time is simple. He had learnt after a quarter century long struggle that without arm-twisting the politician, nothing would change. Like Hon. Shri Sibbal has said, nothing may still change. Who would come to the help of the common man or the now famous ' Aam Aadmi' if the Neta felt powerless because of the Lok Pal? The fact is that the middle class, which is totally and comprehensively marginalised and in fact disempowered, cannot do anything to change the system simply because our electoral system is so beautifully managed and manipulated that even if all of them voted en masse, they still cannot dent the system of buying votes to prevent which even the CEC wants more stringent laws but is powerless as leaders promise TVs, money and mobile phones. A friend of mine who has just returned from Tamil Nadu which is in the midst of election fever, told me, "Now the electricity is switched at 10 PM sharp and within minutes unknown and unrecognised persons knock on the doors of rural voters and offer them Rs. 2000 or more to vote for their candidates but no one can prove anything as no one can recognise them. Whenever they want to enhance their pay and allowances or MPLADS funds all our honourable representatives of the people forget ideological and party differences and vote to ensure smooth passage of the bill. Nurturing their vote banks they never fail to support ever increasing quotas in reservations, say nothing about the Jat, Gujjar, Telangana Khap and numerous other such violent protests that are ignited by those in power. They dont care if public property is lost or damaged or public is inconvenienced, all in the name of democracy. They dont lose sleep when precious grain wrots in our FCI godowns and ordinary people buy Dals at Rs. 100 per kilo. They also forget to ratify the UN anti graft resolution for six years, do not sign the necessary protocols and treaties to get details of the money stashed abroad from foreign governments, downplay the losses of 2G scam, blatantly brush off CWG and Prasar Bharati hera pheri and still want the average, educated Indian to have faith in their brand of democracy. Sir, they forget that democracy is not merely holding periodic elections but ensuring the rule of law. Even though not one corrupt leader is in jail they continue to repeat that the 'Law would take its own course', unashamedly call upon the support of an MP in a jail to win a no-confidence vote, openly admit that Rajya Sabha nominations and elected seats are purchased and don't bat an eyelid while declaring a ten to hundred fold increase in their assets every five years and when the Supreme Court asks that this be investigated they simply stonewall the issue. And yet the guardians of this sham democracy do not want a veteran social worker who has no personal axe to grind with any of them to fast unto death because that is coercion, anti constitution, against the hallowed canons of parliamentary democracy. Why dont the common ignorant people understand? Why dont they permit the knowledgeable, well meaning democratically elected leaders to run the country for the collective good of the people??