I was glued to Television for days, first to witness the LokSabha proceedings and then RajyaSabha. The bill unfolded the highs of lows of Indian Parliamentary democratic system. It also showed how the manipulation happens to score brownie points. The way RajyaSabha got adjourned, I can only term as the highest form of political culinary but done all the wrong way. Without getting into debate whether or who was responsible for the ruckus, let's focus on the core issue of Lokpal.
The whole notion of sharing their power and freedom with anyone else has always stopped the governments to bring anything like Lokpal. That's the reason that in spite of being placed in the parliament, it never got passed. The situation changed once Anna Hazare and his team owned the issue and the mass rallying behind him made the government to sit and take notice of him. It's true that he did not got the similar response in Mumbai, but I think it's too early to write him off. The debacle in RajyaSabha is going to make him strong only.
The question comes now what is going to happen to Lokpal now. Is it going to see the light of the day ever. I am not an astrologer but I think it's an idea whose idea has come now. And it's going to come sooner then later. How and why is this going to happen? If we look into broad politics, the mass in general works with notion of symbols. People want to know the big bold points to take their decision. Take any aspect of life where we have to take a decision. Some of us are more methodical and some are not so. However eventually we all want to reach to a mindset where we can say with some conviction that if it's good or bad. Similarly the mass looks for those symbols when they are going to cast their vote. They need big headlines to be hammered in their head and it has to be easy to understand. With Anna Hazare movement, it has been drilled into the head of people that Lokpal means which can eradicate the corruption and that's easy to understand. The other thing that has come again heavily is that CBI needs to be under Lokpap only then Lokpal is going to be effective. Whether people worry about the federal structure and legal difference between Article 252 and Article 253. I doubt if that even matters to people and these issues be better left ot political class to resolve.
The ruling and the opposition will have to see the writings in bold. The mass needs Lokpal and CBI under it. Anything else is going to make people unhappy and may reflect in the vote politics. It's true that the crowd did not assembled in Mumbai but the mass still identifies themselves with him. Moreover the bonding has increased after Anna's insistence that it's difficult to believe on political class coming true after the RajyaSabha incident. The web of words are good for intellectuals but the bold is required for masses and the writing is clear on wall. People may term the night as when democracy was massacred but I would say it's the night when the political class made the voters more intelligent.
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