Keep the candles ready for yet another satyagraha, this time by Baba Ramdev

Now it is Baba Ramdev’s turn. On 4 June, as an accompanying story relates, we will witness the start of another satyagraha, another farce enacted in Gandhi’s name. This magazine had written against the euphoria generated by Anna Hazare, cautioning against easy expectations of change. We were branded cynics, sellouts or both by many. The events since speak for themselves, but they are still worth listing. Suresh Kalmadi has been arrested, Kanimozhi has been named (albeit only after the polling was over in Tamil Nadu, a clear sign that despite the Supreme Court, the CBI is not done with political calculations) in the 2G chargesheet, the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report indicts this government and even calls the role of the PM into question. But do we see the Government on the defensive? Quite the contrary, and Hazare’s fast and subsequent events have much to do with it.

It was telling that in the course of the fast, there were a number of people at Jantar Mantar wearing badges stating in essence that if Manmohan Singh wanted votes, he should pass the Lokpal Bill. It was as if the actual charges of corruption against this government did not matter if the Bill were passed. This ludicrous expectation has been central to the movement. Today, the Government should have been in retreat, offering explanations and offering a few senior heads in the Cabinet; if not for directly collaborating in the 2G scam, then certainly for letting it unfold. Instead, we are caught up in a tamasha over the Lokpal Bill. The Congress could not have asked for a better diversion.

Some of it has been created by the party itself. The Congress has few equals in the art of skulduggery (see the interview of the PAC chief Murli Manohar Joshi in this issue), and it has used this ability in good measure to question the PAC report. This has been combined with a direct attack on the very people who have given the movement for the Lokpal Bill some respectability. We have unfortunately had to deal with the sorry spectacle of a CD attempting to frame Prashant and Shanti Bhushan, a CD that now appears to be doctored and should never have been publicised in the first place.

It is an aside, but an illustrative one, to consider the differences with the publication of the 2G tapes. In that case, a clear trail led from the published transcripts to a government department that after authorisation had taped the conversations. Which is why no one has questioned their veracity, which is why the PAC report available on the website of The Hindu can state: ‘The publishers of the news magazines who first published the tapes, testified that they were actuated by their journalistic duty to reveal the truth and the irrepressible urge of public interest. The Committee appreciate the exemplary professional job done by these journalists who despite the imminent possibility of the serious hazards both physical and financial undertook the venture they embarked upon.’ It is unlikely that any Parliamentary committee will say the same thing about the circulation of the Bhushan CD.

The same criticism though cannot extend to revelations about the allotment of farmhouses to Shanti Bhushan and his son by the Mayawati government of UP. The method of allotment through an interview and lack of transparency in the procedure are telling. The perception of integrity of those nominated to draft the Bill is important, and the revelations certainly raise serious questions about Shanti Bhushan’s continuation on that panel. Unfortunately, those who so often call others to account have reacted in much the manner as politicians do, attempting to brazen out charges by calling into questions the motives of those who made the charges. If there is substance to the charge, as there seems to be, the motives are secondary.

This drama should have remained a sidelight. Instead, it has taken attention away from the serious business of calling the Government to account. We will soon see the election results being touted by the Congress as proof of their innocence; somehow they don’t extend the same logic to Narendra Modi. The fact is, election victories in all Indian states put together do not absolve wrongdoing by any government. Unfortunately, as and when more dirt emerges in the 2G scam, more unfolds in the Kalmadi case and bigger names surface, there will be another diversion lying in wait—by the name of Ramdev. If only he would stick to standing on his head. If only Anna had stuck to imposing prohibition in Ralegan Siddhi.