Anna Hazare's Silent, loud Victory

The government was in a damn-it-if-do-damn-it-if-don’t situation in The veteran crusader Anna Hazare’s Fat unto death demanding inclusion of civil society members to draft the Jan Lok Pal Bill. The government was caught in a cleft-stick in deciding as to whether to co-opt the persons who have no legislative sanction to moot legislation on matters of such wider significance. But, the image of the government was such low that any attempts on its part to ward off the demands would have had a cascading effect on the negative publicity generated against it. The dillydallying also would have further damaged the already sullied image of the government. Added to this was the sagging morale of the chief ruling party – Congress- due to the immoderation of the coalition partners to look for cheap money through ministerial discretion and post-haste grand efforts to derive maximum kickbacks out of available deals on hand thanks to crony capitalism. Now the media has been trying the PM for his one more error of judgement in choosing to include the civil society members to be co-opted in the Committee for Drafting the Bill, which is likely to unleash unexpected results. Whether or not the proposed Jan Lok Pal (Ombudsman) Act, 2011, will become yet another paper tiger or the country will be finding it difficult to dismount the Ombudsman Tiger will have to be seen. Nevertheless, at the moment, the aam-aadmi – who has little or no share in the kick-back pie - is optimistic about the proposed act’s effectiveness to deal with corrupt and dishonest, who amasses wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income. Arguably, the aam-aadmi, who hopes against hopes, to tame the erring politicos and officials -believing only in self-aggrandisement-, cannot be faulted.