It is good to note that Arvind Kejriwal has asked for suggestions from the general masses. His appeal comes after his meeting with Anna Hazare, so it will not be wrong to believe that this initiative has the approval of the veteran leader. Here is what Kejriwal had to say, “If we do not go for the tour of election bound states, what should we do? Should Anna go for another fast? The government has already indicated if people participation in the movement don’t translate into votes, they don’t care. Some have suggested that we should form our own party. But we neither have the will nor the capacity. This is a people’s movement. The movement was successful because they participated. The people should now suggest the way ahead.”

In spite of this I do not know for certain if Arvind or Anna really wants any suggestions. To invite suggestions over email is a good idea, since it would impel many people to write back to them. We all have ideas, don’t we? But then, to scan through these emails and fish out the best of ideas is difficult. It not only requires a good infrastructure, but also some very patient people to do it. I doubt if Team Anna has it. Still if they ask for suggestions, there is something good about it as it makes the movement interactive; and it makes the people think that their opinion matters.

I remember, on 17^th April, 2011, I was there in the Parliament Library reading some of the speeches of my father late Shankar Dayal Singh, made by him in the house of Lok Sabha. On 8 June 1971, while participating in a budget debate, he had said in his maiden speech, “जब तक भ्रष्टाचार और अफसरशाही में सुधार नहीं किया जायेगा, तब तक कुछ नहीं हो सकेगा. समाजवाद का नारा हम लगाते रहेंगे, लेकिन नतीजा यह होगा कि देश आगे नहीं बढेगा.” (Till corruption and red tapism are done with, nothing will ever improve. We may continue to rant the air with slogans of socialism, but the nation will not move forward.)

How very true this has proved. What was relevant during the Fifth Lok Sabha continues to be equally relevant during the Fifteenth Lok Sabha. While redtapism has been eased over these years, the shark of corruption has grown even bigger.

Anyway, why I referred to my preoccupation with Parliamentary speeches on 17th April is because when I came out from the library around evening, I could see a few youngsters riding on their bikes with tricolor in their hands. Anna Hazare had been arrested a day earlier to stop him from fasting and the atmosphere was all charged up. Gradually, more and more youngsters flocked in from different directions and the crowd soon swelled to cross the thousand numbers. With the tricolors in their hands and their heads held high they ranted the air with the chant of ‘Vande Mataram’ as they moved towards the Parliament House. I myself was impelled to follow them and so I made a U-turn.

With no leader to lead them or no mentor to guide them, they were driven by their own spirits – they all wanted their participation to be registered; they all wanted themselves to be counted; they all wanted their presence to be felt, not for any reward, but for the cause. I was not even born in 1942, so I can talk little about the vivacity of the Quit India Movement, but on the basis of whatever I have read, I can say for sure that the passion of the people would be similar to the one that I witnessed then. This was followed by another very successful event by the Team Anna in August at the Ram Leela Grounds, Delhi. The large ground was abuzz with activity as lacs of people from for various walks of life thronged the place for thirteen days. No ordinary feat it was.

Thus, inexperienced as they were, it was but obvious that the Team Anna felt that things would now instantaneously change for better; now nothing could stop them short of getting the Lokpal Bill enacted. Wrapped up in their fantasy, they could not realize that the real life situations are no dreams; that the real politics is vastly different. Their overconfidence in light of the mass participation made them forget the simple fact that there could be a slip between the cup and the lip. Gandhi had waited for almost twenty-five years before he gave the call: Do or Die! Whereas Team Anna thought that change would happen overnight!

And when it did not, they raised their guns against the ruling party at the center. Yet, another mistake that they committed, perhaps more erroneous than their fantasy of success! In Hisar they got their first opportunity to trot their guns and the Congress was defeated. While they thought it to be a shot in their arm, it really did not mean much. The Congress had been defeated from that constituency in 2009, even without Team Anna playing its role. If they would have their own candidate in the fray and would have him elected, things would be different. But, the field is still not set for this kind of endeavor and in all probability their own candidate would have met the same fate, perhaps worse, as that of the Congress’s candidate.

Yes, let us admit that no candidate in Indian Politics wins an election because of his or her righteous character. Even if a candidate of merit wins an election, it is only incidental. The factors such as cast play its role more than his own characteristics. A candidate’s value is based more on his caste and region than his moral virtues and therefore no party in Indian politics feels ashamed at admitting the likes of Babu Singh Kushwaha or D.P. Yadav into its fold so long as it gets them some caste votes. So to seek change by intervening in the election process was a pre-mature decision on the part of Team Anna. If they were agitated over the indication by someone in the government that ‘if people participation in the movement don’t translate into votes, they don’t care’, the Team Anna simply failed to differentiate between the government and the party and moreover they failed to realize that any party would have thrown the same challenge.

Arvind Kejriwal clarifies that being anti-Congress is not being pro-BJP. Admittedly, but who gains because of the other’s loss is also very detrimental. Would the BJP help if it had the requisite numbers to get the Lokpal bill through? On other hand, did the Congress have the requisite numbers to get the bill passed? By taking a firm anti-Congress stand, Team Anna merely deviated from its stance on the Lokpal to settling a score with the Government. Gandhi never did anything to settle scores with someone, what he did was for a cause and so some of his stance like decision to support the Allied Forces or backtrack on the Non-cooperation Movement may have appeared to be contradictory to his nationalist stance, still he always moved ahead towards his overall goal. Anna should have realized that the people did not come to his support so that he could settle scores with the Congress Party or the Government, but they came to demonstrate their concerns against corruption. For them corruption by Mayavati was no different than corruption by the Congress!

Even the most controversial decisions of the Mahatma were not marred by negativism. Even the Non-cooperation Movement that seems to have stemmed from the concept of negation had the power of creativity behind it. The boycott of British courts and administration was in fact the acceptance of the Indian Panchayat system, the blazing of the English cloths and discard of foreign goods was for strengthening the Indian economy and making the Indian people self-reliant. The Congress Party even went on to establish a parallel police force to form an alternative to the Government Forces. By taking a hard-line against the Congress, the modern Gandhi merely exposed himself to the fact that he failed to understand Gandhism in its right context. This too served a crucial blow to his movement. The stepping of Team Anna in the electoral war at Hisar did little harm to the Congress, than it did to the Lokpal Movement that now looks defocused and stands defused.

The Team Anna fell to yet another folly. In trying to muster support for the Lokpal Bill, he accepted supports from all people without bothering to verify their credentials. I believe Loknayak Jaiprakash had committed similar mistake. He had every Tom, Dick and Harry to support his crusade against Indira’s Congress so we had a sequel of people like Lalu Yadav who proved to be more disastrous than Indira Gandhi.

It is therefore good to note that Team Anna is trying to do some soul searching. Let us hope they realize their mistakes and then the tides turn in their favour, for in their triumph lies the triumph of democracy, in their victory is the victory of the nation!