The seduction of the crowd, the din and adulation of the street is snake oil and this false elixir attracts that terrible curse of hubris. Looking back now to those tumultuous events a few months ago when the entire nation was in thrall of the crusade against corruption; when Anna Hazare and his team could do no wrong; when mere mortals were transformed into mythic status, the sudden plunge in the fortunes of this coterie since those heady days is astounding, their fall from grace vertiginous!
Has Hazare's core team, a retired and well respected judge, a father-son duo, a former cop with impeccable credentials and an activist with an impressive record of work who seemingly resembled the faceless ordinary citizen come a cropper? Controversies have plagued all of them except the judge; each of them displaying a shocking lack of impropriety or poor judgment by courting discord. Hazare himself has not exactly burnished his image, more to the contrary. Crusaders who can dish out but can't take it, double-speak and the inability to stay focused on their main cause have been their Achilles heel. It would therefore pay to closely examine each of our protagonists before we pronounce our verdict.
First, the father-son duo, ironical that in a movement to cleanse public life of cronyism and nepotism we have this peculiar twosome as part of the campaign; as a symbol of transparency in politics there couldn't be a more inappropriate choice. Both have been at the forefront of the battle against dynastic politics and bloodlines and can there be anything more dim-witted than this pair to fight the good cause?
Loss of face
The son Prashant Bhushan's ill-advised pronouncements on Kashmir was a needless exercise to needle the xenophobic right as well as the middle class. The unpardonable attack by his detractors in his chambers, all videotaped and broadcast on prime time TV smacked of a genre of movies made famous by Martin Scorsese.
Graphic pictures of body blows being rained on Bhushan and his flaying arms making feeble attempts to ward off his attackers had one recalling Goodfellas. And later, the father defending his son after his gratuitous remarks on Kashmir evoked memories of Indira Gandhi defending her errant son Sanjay Gandhi during the dark days of the emergency. There is delicious irony here for the very same Bhushan senior was a key player in decrying Indira Gandhi in those forgotten times for fawning on her fascist son.
Next, the former cop Kiran Bedi popularly referred to as Crane Bedi for having towed away Indira Gandhi's car; she has suffered the most in loss of face in Team Anna. An honest cop who stood for the best in probity is now accused of fudging her expenses. She charges for business class seats but travels economy and when caught out cries foul like the corrupt politician. She declares grandiloquently that she should be lauded, because the difference in the ticket cost does not go to her pocket but to the NGO that she supports.
She claims she kept her sponsors informed of this fudge and even declares this is standard practice amongst the NGO fraternity. Irrespective, at best this shows very poor judgment, at worst a venal racket to siphon funds for her benefit. In hindsight, after her tacky stage performance at Ram Lila Maidan when she mimicked the motley crowd of politicians this revelation virtually shreds her reputation.
The discounted ticket story has a further twist to it; being a gallantry award winner she gets substantial concession while buying tickets from Air India, so in effect she pays less than 25 per cent of the fare and combined with the overcharging on class of travel and the frequent criss-crossing she does for the movement there is an ominous ring to all this. Not a pretty picture, even if these inspired stories by those who dislike her have exaggerated these accounts.
Next comes Arvind Kejriwal, the common man with uncommon tactics. He is a graduate from the prestigious IIT Kharagpur, has a solid contribution in public causes, was a one-time protege of Arun Roy, that ultimate crusader for Right To Information (RTI), yet his antics in Hisar and attempts at diverting monies received from the public to his NGO leave us aghast. Kejriwal apparently hails from Hisar and his open support to the anti-Congress plank there has Machiavellian reasons. He harbours political ambitions and thinks he can enter a full-time career in this new vocation by building a constituency in Hisar. There are also reports of fudging similar to Bedi, concerning his scholarship grants, improper deductions for tax breaks, salary claims though he was on a sabbatical without pay, etc.
A sorry story indeed of individuals who only the other day seemed squeaky clean, model citizens for a new India rising from its age-old squalor and ancient fault lines of caste, creed, religion and privilege. Hubris and vaulting ambition making a mockery of those high ideals; a mass movement that has lost its way unable to break that old mould of cynicism, apathy and indifference.
Ravi Menon is a Dubai-based writer working on a series of essays on India and on a public service initiative called India Talks.
