Why government is finding difficult to deal with Anna? The way the whole Ramlila Maidan event unfolded, it clearly reflected one thing is the inability of the government to manage. Government machinery tried everything. saama,dama, danda, veda but nothing yielded the solution. In fact, on the contrary the movement got strengthened. First government tried saama by engaging them in a joint committee and giving an impression that the government is serious about the demands of the civil society. Unfortunately govt. did not had the intentions and that resulted in the kind of draft that they presented in the parliament. This resulted in civil society hitting back. There might be some dama related activities in some form or other. Even in form on getting the points to standing committee so that more time can be bought. Then came the danda by putting Anna and his team in Tihar jail. Unfortunately that backfired, in a big way. A small gathering, which was going to happen in Ambedkar park, tuned out to be one of the biggest movement after freedom. Now the government machinery is resorting to the veda. It's trying to isolate individual members by getting them embroiled in various controversies. The machinery is trying to target the core vocal members in the anticipation that, this will weaken the sharpness of the movement. It's quite possible that they might be able to get their act done with couple of members. But eventually they will make the core, Anna more stronger with it. Their is a kind of feeling already in the masses that the government is resorting to under hand tactics. Also with these activities, it's making it more popular. From no where, the masses now know about so many members of the movement that they are becoming known faces with the masses. Also the silence of Anna is making him and his team stronger only.
What are the options with the government to deal with this situation? First government will have to show the commitment to the cause, which still does not looks convincing. There are people in government who support it, but it seems there is a section of political class who don't want strong Lokpal for obvious reasons. Unfortunately for the political class, they have to understand that the history is changing tides and they have to heed to it otherwise it will wash many of them. The problem of political class in dealing with this issue is that, they are used to negotiation of give and take with something for everyone. However they are dealing with a movement which is fanatic about it's cause. The history has shown that such movement are usually successful and results in changing the whole political class. The biggest problem of dealing with Gandhiji for Britishers was that, they never knew how to negotiate with him. All other factors of freedom movement were manageable because they were negotiable in some form or other. The same thing is getting repeated now. The problem was compounded further for Britishers because Gandhiji has no personal ambition. He was fanatic (see this word in positive form) about the cause and same thing is getting reflected by Anna.
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