NEW POSSIBILITIES IN POLITICS?
Afternoon Despatch & Courier
MUMBAI | MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015
An Arvind Kejriwal-Anna Hazare Tie Up...
By Chauthi Duniya Reporter
C
RUSADER against corruption Anna Hazare came to Delhi after many days, held a dharna (a non-violent sit-in protest) at Jantar-Mantar and this dharna against the Land Acquisition Ordinance amplified the seriousness of the problem in the ears of people. It is true that it is not the duty of Anna alone that he should hold an andolan (agitation) for every problem. There are other people too in the country who can raise questions, can hold an andolan, and can join hands, but they don’t. Actually, in the context of the land acquisition issue, the biggest fault is that of the country’s farmers outfits. No talks are held between farmers groups and every farmers group wants to be the leading group in the country, with all the people working under its leadership. To work together – this is not the intent of any farmers outfit. To work under them – that is their intent. This is the reason that successive governments are continuing to make laws against farmers, each government is working against the interests of farmers, and are succeeding in breaking up farmers' groups.
Land Acquisition Ordinance Social activist Anna Hazare came to Delhi to get the Land Acquisition Ordinance against farmers nullified so that it doesn’t take the form of law, to draw the attention of the country to it. But the four main people who brought him to Delhi have no direct connection or relationship with farmers. P.V. Rajagopal is a well known social worker who works in Madhya Pradesh, who worked amongst landless tribals and whose first demand is that tribals in the jungles or the landless should get land along with the rights over it. He has no relationship with land
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NOTES FROM NEW DELHI
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Social activist Anna Hazare with AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia in this file photo. acquisition, no relationship with the farmers, but only tribals. The second entity Magsaysay Award recipient, Rajendra Singh, who was till now working together with the Congress on the water problems in the country. He too has had no direct connection with the problems of farmers. The third person is K.N. Govindacharya, who is RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s inseparable friend and an advisor and who in the next few days, like Sanjay Joshi, can return to mainstream politics with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In fact, Sanjay Joshi and Govindacharya are such faces of the RSS who have great influence on workers and workers associated with the Sangh Parivar place a lot of faith in Govindacharya. While Govindacharya is certainly unhappy with the methodology of the Sangh Parivar and the methodology of the BJP, he does
BLESSED BY HIS MENTOR: Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal.
not consider it impractical. He wants improvements to be there in the Sangh and that this country should run according to the policies of the Sangh Parivar. These three people sitting with Anna Hazare, instead of the problems of farmers, underline some other problems. Why are farmers organisations not with Anna Hazare, that is indeed a question. And amongst the organisations (and their heads) which are there, most of them are such who, while doing other work also work among farmers, because without invoking the name of farmers their problems cannot be sorted out. Social activist Medha Patkar’s name is foremost amongst them. Founder member of Narmada Bachao Andolan, Patkar works basically to rehabilitate displaced people.
Changing strategy Nobody in the country has any doubt about the emotions linked with the ideology of these four people, nobody has any doubt about their integrity either. But despite this, the subject of support of these four people and for which they brought Anna to Delhi, that subject is fine for their leadership, but why did they not include in it farmers leaders in the country? Because large farmers organisations in the country say something else, the leaders collected in Delhi say something else. Anna's voice and tone was quite clear and was in favour of farmers. It is this contradiction that scares us. Anna also keeps changing his strategy from time to time, keeps changing the pace of his steps, keeps changing his direction too. He is a saintly person. He first said that no political person would come on his platform or dais and he would not share the platform or dais with anyone. Then he sat on the stage with politicians. Earlier, he kept Arvind Kejriwal away from himself, but as soon as Kejriwal gave him a signal, he was
eager to embrace him. I consider this an auspicious sign. Kejriwal is a genuinely political person and he is also identified with those issues which are raised by his mentor – Anna. If Anna and Kejriwal come together, then there will be a dawn of a new political movement in the country. Kejriwal does not like associating with other political parties who are fighting on questions related to the public and neither should he do so. Because as soon as Kejriwal takes those leaders along with him, he would be considered one of them. And if as of today, Kejriwal can get the support of Anna, then his political party can try to form an organisation in the country and can isolate such potential leaders in the country who want to challenge Narendra Modi. The first name amongst them is that of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. The Arvind Kejriwal-Anna Hazare pair can first of all push the likes of Nitish, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav to the periphery of the political scenario. The Congress, because of its own idiocy, is already searching for a corner to hide. Before the BJP came into the limelight, by taking Anna with himself, Kejriwal can lay claim to being the sole honest leader, and sensitive to the people. By reducing the rates of electricity and water, Kejriwal has conveyed to Delhi and to the country that if he takes a position, then he can try and use means and tools in favour of the people and can take decisions in favour of the people too. Anna has much to decide on, because this is a country of trusting people and the trust of people keeps getting broken. Therefore, it is Anna's personal responsibility that if he has held Arvind's hand, then by raising political, non-political questions he should neither separate Kejriwal from himself nor distance him, but instead, by lending support to Kejriwal, should start the process of touring the country.
DILLI KA BABU Looking east
China obviously looms large on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign policy agenda. Modi hosted Chinese president Xi Jinping in September last year and is now preparing for his visit to the country in May. Meanwhile his in-house specialist National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has been busy shuttling between Dilli and Beijing holding talks with Chinese officials on, among other things, the contentious border issue. Now, reportedly, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has created a new and separate China desk, which will function directly under Doval’s supervision. It will be headed by a Joint Director level spook. The news came as a surprise to some since information gathering about China is usually the turf of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). But RAW seems to have been “turfed”, for now. Apparently the move was on the cards ever since Modi sarkar came to power. Until now, China was clubbed along with other nations in the Indian intelligence establishment, though former IB chief S.A. Ibrahim, did have a hand in pushing the idea of a separate desk for China.
CM fights corruption
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has a surprise weapon in his anticorruption drive. It’s WhatsApp, the popular cellphone app for messaging and sharing videos. Addressing officials on the occasion of the annual IAS Week, Yadav stunned the audience of babus by claiming that he had a video of a senior babu accepting a bribe. Though he didn’t name the alleged offender, Yadav did say that he had stored the video on his WhatsApp and even shown the video to the State Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan. While Yadav did not expound further on the issue, it clearly left the babus rattled. Clearly, Yadav wants to up the ante against corrupt babus in his administration, with an eye on the 2017 assembly elections. Both babus and those who follow babu affairs are now trying to determine the identity of the alleged culprit caught on video in the CM’s possession. Yadav too did not elaborate what action he or his Chief Secretary have taken against the “guilty”.
Whistleblower blues
Whistleblower Indian Forest Service officer of Haryana cadre, Sanjeev Chaturvedi, has been shunted around by various regimes – first in Haryana, his cadre State, by the then Congress Government and then by Modi sarkar which removed him from the Chief Vigilance Officer of AIIMS, a move which kicked off a political storm. Now it seems the officer may have actually found someone who wants to keep him. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has reportedly sought Chaturvedi’s services to head Delhi’s Anti-Corruption Branch. Sources say that Kejriwal has written to Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar to release Chaturvedi from his present duties and send him to Delhi. But it won’t be easy, observers say, since Chaturvedi needs clearance also from the Health Ministry (his previous posting) and the Central Vigilance Commission, and given Modi sarkar’s attitude towards the babu that may be easier said than done.
— By Dilip Cherian