This wasn’t quite the script either Anna Hazare or the Congress leadership would have hoped the year to end on. As Anna Domini 2011 drew to a close, the last week of the year just gone by saw dramatic and unexpected twists in the tale with the unseen hand of the scriptwriter working towards a climax or anti-climax whichever you prefer. Witnessing the tumultuous conclusion of the Winter Session in the Rajya Sabha last Thursday, it was undoubtedly a climactic and tragic end. But another scenario played out at the MMRDA Grounds in Mumbai, marking a disappointing anti-climax for the popular anti-corruption agitation to the year that Time magazine has called “Year of the Protestor” — a term that most certainly applies to Anna-dominated India, 2011.
December 27 to 29 became the high-water mark for a turbulent year, but when the 3-day extended Session of Parliament began few had anticipated the outcome. For one, the hype over Mr Hazare’s resumed agitation in a changed venue, including a fast by the ageing leader was hardly expected to be a damp squib. His earlier mobilisations had been stupendously successful with the Ramlila Maidan protest causing the Government to capitulate and Parliament hurriedly pass a Sense of the House Resolution conceding most of his rather overstated demands.
The Government, which had similarly succumbed to his show of strength at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar in April, later tried a too-clever-by-half tactic that failed. Inviting Anna and his four associates, giving them official legitimacy and parity in the 10-member Joint Drafting Committee for a revised Lokpal Bill, the Government’s arrogant interlocutors subsequently rejected all their suggestions and turfed them out. Having battered Baba Ramdev’s peaceful supporters in July, Ministers Chidambaram and Sibal assumed they could happily play Tarzan with all anti-corruption agitators. They paid a huge price in August after Anna’s support soared following his ham-handed arrest and the protests went viral.
In the process, however, some of Mr Hazare’s ambitious cohorts acquired a swollen head, deciding they were infallible. They believed they were invincible and crowds would assemble in lakhs each time they batted an eyelid. People dislike arrogance and just as they had forced the Manmohan Singh regime to bite the dust in August, they brought down Team Anna’s hyper-ego a few notches in December.
Despite swallowing humiliation both in April and August, the Government did not abandon its wily manoeuvres aimed at scuttling the Lokpal Bill. A quick recap of events that led to the tabling of the new version of Lokpal Bill in Lok Sabha on December 27 is sufficient to establish this contention. For one, the Standing Committee took an inordinately long time to submit an inconclusive report, which contained an uncharacteristically high 17 notes of dissent. There was no agreement on the three crucial issues, namely, the manner of instituting Lokayuktas, inclusion of the CBI as well as Group C and D officers, and whether Lokpal would have jurisdiction over the Prime Minister. The Government called an all-party meeting only after it had finalised its strategy to torpedo the Bill.
Disregarding Constitutional and judicial proscriptions against certain categories of reservations, the Government amended its own revised Bill through a Corrigen-dum to add minorities, in full knowledge that such a provision would instantly drive a wedge in Opposition unity. To begin with the very idea of reserving caste and gender-based positions in the nine-member Lokpal panel was a deliberate ploy to divert attention from the issue of corruption. This unwarranted tokenism was aimed purely at deriving mileage for the Congress on the eve of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll, which is widely billed as Mr Rahul Gandhi’s make-or-break test. By channelising the debate to a different arena the Government talked tough on both the Lokayukta legislation in the States and CBI’s control, which as it stands ensures the Union Government’s control over the country’s premier investigating body. While most regional parties did not, at least privately, want an independent CBI, they paid voluble lip service to CBI being freed of the Government’s clutches.
But by incorporating Mr Gandhi’s “game-changing” formulation to make Lokpal a constitutional body, the Government carefully plotted the Bill’s defeat. It suffered a humiliating setback (although many Congressmen wanted it that way), when the constitutional amendment failed to muster two-thirds’ support in Lok Sabha. Inept floor management led the media to suspect a plot and the Opposition to smell blood prior to the Rajya Sabha debate. The Government would have been happy to get an infirm Lokpal ratified or rejected by the Upper House. If rejected it would tom-tom BJP’s double standards. What it didn’t account for was a UPA partner and two major supporting parties doing a double take, reaffirming Congress’s complete isolation.
Already short of numbers for the necessary simple majority in Rajya Sabha, Trinamool Congress’s refusal to play ball emboldened fence sitters Samajwadi Party and BSP to harden their stance. While Trinamool had voted with the Government in Lok Sabha despite speaking loudly against a uniform Lokayukta mechanism through Article 253, the party supremo was livid at her wishes not having been carried out. She directed each of her six Rajya Sabha MPs personally on phone to vote for deleting this provision from the Bill. Sensing an opportunity of a lifetime, all regional parties joined forces, fully backed by BJP, which had in any case sought amendment of this provision in the Lok Sabha too.
So, in its best tradition the Congress launched its torpedo operation. When attempts to cajole and/or browbeat SP, BSP and Trinamool failed, the ruling party unleashed political gangsters on Rajya Sabha. Directed by Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, desperate to return to 10 Janpath’s favour and regain a Cabinet berth, just two MPs ensured disruption of the debate as the clock ticked away towards midnight.
The Congress set the stage by its own two-pronged strategy. First it created ruckus to stop BJP speakers. Mr Ram Jethmalani was tolerated for 15 minutes till he produced documents about an Indian Prime Minister’s money in Swiss banks; no prizes for guessing who! All hell broke loose. Similarly, as soon as I said corruption runs in the Congress’s genes, I was prevented from speaking. My unsuccessful attempts at completing my arguments were stonewalled by continuous heckling by the Treasury Benches including Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal personally. The other part of the tactic was to push dozens of new names into the list of speakers on the motion. That ensured the debate itself prolonged till nearly 11 pm. Further, Minister of State in the PMO, Mr V Narayanasamy, despite his throat affliction, insisted on speaking for over 30 minutes. Then, curiously, the House was adjourned for 15 minutes.
When it resumed, Mr Arun Jaitley made his memorable remark: “Although I am in the Opposition, today I believe I speak for the majority of this House,” demanding the voting process start immediately. Claiming pandemonium when none existed, Rajya Sabha was promptly adjourned sine die and forced to rise for Vande Mataram.
For once, the strains of the stirring, inspirational national song sounded almost a mockery of the salutation to Mother India. It was as if we had become party to the Government’s attempt to disrobe her and destroy the very foundations of Parliamentary democracy. 2011 ended on a deeply depressing note. I hope 2012 will see India’s renewal. I am sure every one of us shares this dream.
