Anna finds support within the parliament too: left, right and centre!
New Delhi: while the large sections of intellectuals in India see Anna Hazare’s movement as a grave threat to Indian democracy, the political parties have decided to take a plunge. Even though intellectuals like to analyze socio-political movements in retrospect and use it as PhD material years or decades later, increasingly after the independence movement, they see spontaneous outbursts and uprisings as a nuisance and even a grave risk. The reason may be a creeping bureaucratization of the Indian intellectual who wants the public to follow the straight paths recommended by it.
Politicians on the other hand, both good and bad see in popular uprisings an opportunity. And thankfully so! According to the latest reports, both the left and the right opposition in the country are churning with excitement. Nine non-National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parties, including the Left are already calling for nationwide protests on August 23 to demand new legislation for a “strong Lokpal authority.” The decision of the non-NDA left parties was announced by Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat after a meeting of their leaders here on Friday. The meeting was attended by CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan, Janata Dal (Secular) president H.D. Deve Gowda, Telugu Desam Party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh, AIADMK MP M. Thambi Durai and Biju Janata Dal, RSP and Forward Bloc leaders Bhartruhari Mahtab, Abani Roy and Debabrata Biswas.
According to press reports, there is a distinct possibility of the BJP-led alliance announcing a separate all-India protest against corruption the same day. NDA working chairman L.K. Advani, at a function on Thursday, said the time had come for the entire Opposition to unite to ensure the ‘exit’ of the UPA government. Mr. Advani conceded that the Left had inhibition in associating with the BJP. But the BJP did not believe in “political untouchability.” He said ‘However, their [Left] decision to attend the meeting in Ms. Swaraj’s chamber following the outrage over action against Anna Hazare has given rise to hopes for some concerted action by all opposition groups against this government, which has done everything against aam aadmi [the common man].’
In a curious development from Bihar’s point of view, at a meeting of the NDA leaders on Thursday, JD [U] president Sharad Yadav mooted a proposal for an all-India protest saying ‘We should try and co-ordinate our planned programme with non-NDA Opposition’. As we know JD [U] is a party very much on the left in spirit but stuck irretrievably with the BJP for strategic reasons.
It seems likely that at a juncture like this, JD [U], Nitish and Shard might provide just the kind of bridge that the left and right require for issue-based joint action within and outside the parliament. For the time being, anyway!
[courtesy: The Hindu]