Waiting to bite the bait

It all started with Anna Hazare launching a campaign for the Lokpal Bill. People joined, showed their support, and then forgot about the whole issue considering the inside differences in Anna’s own team. But then there were some like Arvind Kejriwal waiting for their turn to try their hands at politics. There could not have been a better opportunity with people already feeling tired of the existing government and the various allegations of corruption tumbling out of it coffers.

It was team Anna’s absolutist stance that has resulted in some of its popularity dwindling among the Hazare followers. Hazare squandered some of the goodwill and moral force he had acquired by being too rigid on his stance of either Jan Lokpal or nothing, by publicly denigrating the parliamentary process and finally by openly getting associated with party politics.

With team BJP taking double stances on the Lokpal Bill and the Congress government shying away from making a decision regarding the bill and putting the CBI under the scanner of the Lokpal bill, the whole concept of Lokpal Bill which had gained so much popularity among the urban middle class seemed to collapse. What started as a movement against corruption transformed into a campaign against the Congress. Gradually, it descended to a commonplace obstructionist policy. The people lost interest, the team lost support, and Anna Hazare was completely forgotten. Finding it as the best time to bite the bait, Arvind Kejriwal came to the forefront to take advantage of the unhealed wounds of the common masses. He formed his own political party, showed interest in contesting elections against the Congress in 2014, and announced a never-ending, sustained campaign against the Congress till the next elections.

What started as a dream of building a super-Ombudsman for bringing the employees of the Government under its scanner irrespective of the federal nature of the Constitution ended in formation of political parties for fulfilling own vested interests.

What remains to be seen by us as Indians is whether we get something better at the Centre or whether we would again be caught up in the vicious circle of added corruption by incoming newly formed political parties. Only time can tell……….since the only thing we can do is wait.