Victory of People's Power

When Anna Hazare publicly declared his fast unto death starting August 16 on his conditions of incorporating Jan Lokpal Bill prerogatives into Lokpal Bill, many cynics including the government, political class, and self-proclaimed intellectuals thought this movement will fizzle out soon in a week or so, without considering the degree of public anguish and desperation that was still abounding in the collective public memory due to constant expose of big-ticket scams in media in last couple of years. Even the think-tank in Manmohan Singh cabinet did underestimate the consequence of apprehensive arrest of Anna and put him in Tihar Jail where the most corrupt politicians were lodged in, before he started his fast at JP Park, and this faux pas of government fueled the public anger to such a critical level that whatever tactical measures government ventured to engage in, pathetically turned out to be an absolute flip-flop. And in all those 13 days of fast, Anna's message was reverberating in every city of India and beyond the border. Millions of people came out to street to show their solidarity with Anna's anti-corruption movement and those who couldn't avail themselves physically on the street fired up their messages on social media to keep the Anna trend bolstered. The largest democracy of the world was experiencing its most testing time.

All political parties were engaged in a deja vu of tug-of-war to fish in troubled water. However, the public support was restored unconditionally in Anna's courage of conviction. Perhaps, that's the potential game-changer in this anti-corruption movement which pushed this government and other political parties to rush in to an unprecedented special session in the Parliament to arrive at a reasonable resolution on three exclusive points raised by Anna. Though there might be technical loopholes in the resolution process which would prop up government's argument in the Standing Committee for playing tricks in future, but the larger fact is that however crafty the government maybe in persuading other political parties to go askance vis-a-vis Anna's measures, they can't ignore the public anger anymore.

The precedent has been set. The transition of parliamentary democracy to a participatory democracy has taken wings. There may be many obstacles the future governments would face while passing a bill that would affect the public because India is a well-diversified society and hence incorporating the views from various civil society groups could accentuate to a greater degree of confusion.