The ongoing agitation by Team Anna in the National Capital’s Ramlila Maidan has not only awakened the consciousness of the society at large but also the Government as the agitation had made them realize the importance of being firmly on the ground and not get over the moon after the huge victory they got in 2009 General Elections.
Manmohan Singh Government could have handled the situation in a more matured way. Considering the Congress party is in power for more than 50 yers now in last 64 years of independence one hoped they would behave more elegantly.
An honest prime minister doesn’t always make a good governance. This was proved yet again. Who can forget the era of PV Narsimha Rao, when his Government was always in the news for wrong reasons involving corruptions?
In 1991, when he became Prime Minister, he was considered to be a very wise leader from Andhra Pradesh. Yet in 1993 he got involved in scandal when he was accused of offering millions of rupees to members of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). Even though he was cleared of the charges in 2002, several of his ministers were involved in corruptions under him.
Same is the case with Dr Manmohan Singh. He might be an extremely honest at the personal front, but that’s not enough. The country has witnessed huge chunks corruptions in his second term at the helm. The 2G scam, CWG scam are just to name few. The many beneficiary of the PM’s quietness were the senior members of DMK Party.
They took Telecom Ministry as their personal fiefdom. The Ministry under ex-Minister A Raja issued 1232 licenses to 85 companies including many new ones with little or no at a price set in the year 2001. The CAG estimated the loss to the exchequer to be 176,000 crore (US$39.25 billion). Both the ex Minister and and DMP leader Kanimozhi are cooling their heels in Tihar jail now.
Not to forget Suresh kalmadi, the former Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman who is also in the same jail.
It in under these circumstances that the Civil Society under the leadership of acclaimed social worker Anna Hazare stood up fighting against corruption and calling their agitation as second war of independence.
Albeit no one can question the integrity and honest efforts of Anna, one feel that his group should also understand that agitation and fast is not a solution but they need to talk more with Government, ultimately it’s our lawmakers who will take the final call.
Already we are witnessing some cases of untowered incidents. Few days back a broadcast journalist was hit by a group of bikers who had come to join the protests. In another incident, a 32 year old man from Patna set himself on fire.
Also it’s high time they should put pressure on the Government to remove some corrupt leaders from the standing committee. Unless they succeed , we won’t get proper lokpall or janlokpall bill, whatever we call afterwards.
We must remember that there are several such bills which are yet to be passed including Women's Resevation Bill which is pending in Parliament for years.
The Government should realize it is high time to develop sensibility and need to take opposition and Team Anna along instead of living in their own dream world of power. If they do so they will not only regain confidence of the masses, but also Dr Manmohan Singh’s popularity will also regain momentum.
However if they fail to read the writing on the wall, change is inevitable.
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