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FEW predicted the scale and intensity of the support that the ongoing mobilization by the movement against corruption and for the Jan Lokpal Bill seems to be gathering. True, the government and the various spokespersons of the Congress Party have been singularly ham-handed, both in failing to read public disgust and anger and in crafting their response to the upsurge. In calumnizing Hazare and his team and in labelling the unrest as merely a middle class, urban phenomenon, if not a creation of right-wing fascist forces, they have further fuelled the trust deficit vis-à-vis the government’s intentions. Whatever one’s position on the Jan Lokpal Bill – and there is little denying that many of its provisions generate substantial unease – or on the tactics of the Hazare team, there is even lower approval of the weak and watered down official version before the select committee of Parliament. In short, if the Manmohan Singh government seems trapped in a near impossible situation, it has only itself to blame.

Yet, to revel in the discomfiture of the UPA-2 government, as many in the parliamentary opposition and outside critics seem to be doing, would be short-sighted. For a start, the current pitch and tenor of the debate, aided in no small measure by an uncritical and hyper-ventilating media, is squeezing out space for a more reasoned and critical discussion on how the country could tackle the hydra-headed monster of corruption and lack of accountability. For instance, even as many favour bringing the prime minister’s office under the ambit of the Lokpal (though with requisite safeguards), there is far less support for empowering the Lokpal for monitoring the judiciary or scrutinizing the actions of legislators inside the House. Such an architecture would violate the fundamental constitutional provision of separation of powers of the executive, legislature and judiciary.

Similarly, despite widespread support for a strong, independent and credible Lokpal, many question the wisdom of proposing a mega agency to monitor allegations of corruption and misconduct across all agencies of the state, and at all levels. Worse still, merge the powers of investigation, prosecution and punishment. More than the impracticality of such a proposal, that such massive concentration of powers in a single institution, without regard for checks and balances, has not disturbed the proponents of summary justice is worrisome. Nevertheless, such is the current public mood that alternative ‘civil society’ proposals are finding it difficult to get a serious hearing. If at all, they are being castigated as co-opted, their proposals diversionary and blunting public anger.

In part this is because the protest/mobilization has, for the moment, gone beyond the specificities of a Lokpal Bill. A vast majority of the protestors are probably unaware of the various clauses/sections of the various drafts; possibly they do not care. What they are saying is that they are fed up and do not trust the sincerity of the government, if not the political class, to act in a decisive manner. The resonance of the slogan, sab neta chor hain; the derisive dismissal by the Hazare team of parliamentary procedures; the insistence that their version of the Lokpal Bill be approved, and now, smacks of an intolerance and messianic zeal that is telling. Though for the moment peaceful and disciplined, if this stand-off between an increasingly intransigent protest and a floundering government continues, what appears like a flowering of ‘people’s power’ may well metamorphose into something different, and ugly.

Breaking the log-jam demands a political, not technical, initiative. Unfortunately, the prime minister seems to lack the necessary political credibility and gravitas; further, his image of personal integrity has taken a beating, and nowhere more than in the very strata that iconized him, the middle class. Playing for time, and hoping that the anger will subside, is no longer a viable option. Possibly, if the Anna Hazare team is willing to be reasonable and accommodative, it may help to introduce their bill in Parliament after withdrawing the official draft, and let normal parliamentary processes take over. This would require the Hazare team to climb down from their maximalist position, and the entire House, including the opposition, to engage in a serious exercise. Continuing prevarication will only further reduce the credibility of Parliament.

Millennial and populist movements imbued with moral self-belief are not merely inchoate, they often well leave the ‘impaired’ system with even fewer resources for self-correction. To believe that once we have the Jan Lokpal in place, or even a new government, we will have rid ourselves of corruption is to wallow in a dangerous delusion. Subsequent failure can easily create the groundwork for an anti-democratic, authoritarian solution. We must not forget the lessons of the Emergency.

Harsh Sethi