Team Anna and Team Manmohan continue to be at each other's throats, clearly oblivious to the distaste the spectacle must generate in an already demoralised citizenry. Of the two, the latter ought to take a larger share of the blame if only because ministers are surely restrained from behaving badly by the office they hold. Yet over the past week, senior UPA government ministers have lunged at Team Anna and at Anna Hazare himself with all the finesse of a street bully engaged in a bruising fight to the finish. It was difficult to decide who among Ministers Salman Khurshid, Vayalar Ravi and V. Narayanasami deserved top prize for incivility as they hurled accusations at their civil society opponents. The Minister for Law and Minority Affairs said he was deeply offended by the team's personal attacks on the Prime Minister but was himself not above aiming some broadsides at Kiran Bedi, claiming to have tolerated her thus far only because she was India's first woman police officer. If this was low theatre, Mr. Narayanasamy, who is a Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office and Mr. Ravi, who holds the Cabinet portfolio of Overseas Indian Affairs, stooped further in calling the Anna movement anti-national and insinuating that Mr. Hazare has “foreign backing”. Mr. Hazare's methods can be debated and even criticised but it is shameful for ministers and politicians to question his patriotism.
Some months ago, the PMO had spotted a similar foreign hand behind the anti-nuclear power movement at Kudankulam. This pattern of official paranoia over popular protests is surely ironic considering the government has itself been accused of selling out to foreign interests and must therefore know the pain of being at the receiving end of wild accusations. Not that Team Anna is without its faults. The movement that caught the nation's imagination barely a year ago looks woebegone today thanks to factional fights and a loss of direction. The group set out to give us a robust Lokpal Bill but has since allowed itself to be diverted by other issues. It took the anti-corruption battle into the electoral arena only to make no impact whatever. Crowds have thinned at Anna's protest sites, and the veteran has not helped himself by teaming up with the maverick Baba Ramdev. Anna's on-again, off-again statements against the Prime Minister have added to the confusion and considerably undermined his team's effort to link Dr. Singh to corruption charges in the allocation of coal blocks. Unfortunately, the slanging match between Team Anna and the ministers cannot even provide comic relief to a nation fearing an economic downturn and groaning under misgovernance and runaway prices.
Keywords: Team Anna, Anna Hazare, UPA government, political corruptions
MMS can be considered "THE MOST PATIENT PM" of Indian history.
So it is the time to actually remove such "HIGHLY ACTIVE" prime
minister.
and that is what Team Anna is doing, and if the govt is to tell that
there is foreign hand in the movement than the government should tell
us that except price rise, inflation, less employment, SCAMS etc,
what have they given us?
So this is one of the lame excuse to put the name of "foreign" in
this matter.
Focus in improvement of the bill should be there and not on such
irrelevant things..
it's a shame that everything in India is incomplete without a "foreign
hand". Can Indian's make anything worthwhile on their own?
Earlier it used to be "imported goods", and now it is "foreign made"
politics and protests. Way to go India!
The unfortunate truth is people at large are not interested in healthy discussion. They have already decided what they want to hear and they want others to say what they want to hear.Hence no amounts of debates by opposing parties will have any meaningful effect on the electorate.For example people may say that some politician or other is right because that politician gives free mixies at the cost of tax payers. Even with RCTs ( Randomized controlled trials ) with the same data researches arrive at diametrically opposite conclusions. Even propensity scores and other statistical analyses do not seem to prevent such disparate or opposing conclusions. Thus beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
Tolerence is one of the most important piller of democracy. If MMS has been alleged of something then he should come out clean through a judicail process. Not through a shameful street fight. Team Anna should also must ensure that before alleging a persona like MMS they must consult legal experts with the evidences they have collected. Ministers must excercise patience.
All those who paint Team Anna in bad light and call them names should remember one thing. They are not asking for any favour. May be then the Govt would have obliged immediately (and distribute in tons like the 2G spectrum). They are asking for strong laws to make the society corrupt free. Isn't it not the responsibility of the Govt to do it? Why are they shying away from it? Why are they afraid to create one? It is because they don't want to dig their own grave. So instead of calling names, ask the 'nationlist' leaders to formulate ways to end corruption. If not they are the anti-nationals.
The ministers in UPA are corrupt,so they have lost their own voice.They can point fingers on others and doubt their patriotism.I don't think any government has been so corrupt during last 20 yrs.From the senior ministers to bureaucrats,everybody is involved directly or indirectly in scams.So why to be so skeptical about others patriotism,ministers should first doubt their own honesty.Whatever team Anna is doing,it is for their welfare.If the Lokpal is failed, Team Anna is not responsible. It is the corrupt politicians in our assembly who have smell the rat, foreseen the danger of passing effective lokpal bill.At last,they are the one who can put forward the lokpal bill in the parliament.What can more can someone expect from an old man Anna of age 75 to do for his country? Atleast spare this heroic man from calling him corrupt or doubting his patriotism.If Anna is accusing PM, he is not doing any crime.Why PM should not pointed out?Every Bil either passes through PM table or his signature.
Calling the Anna Hazare movement as 'Anti-National' and abusing that they have foreign backing is a mere pity. On the Same Lines..Mr. Narayanswamy Should tell what the Present Cabinet is doing. I guess the Words Clearly go beyond 'Anti-National' or whatever. The ministers are being negligent and Irresponsible.. Very Bad! and i am disappointed.
As long as the corrupt gang in the Congress is not guaranteed amnesty , the Lokpal bill will remain a dream for the common man .
Mr. Verghese, the role of media is not to eulogising the govt all the time. Hindu is doing a great service to the nation by placing impartial view before the public. Otherwise the role of agenda serving media is not hidden to anyone. What wrong has Team Anna done if he has brought certain shameful aspects of the Govt in public view. Otherwise it would have been well shoved under carpet. How can public forgive and forget the blunders of MMS when he has supported A. Raja two years ago and chaired P. J. Thomas on the post of Vigilance Commissioner and later has apologised for the same. How can people trust his word that he is honest. If he is honest he would have let the premier investigating agency of the nation, CBI become free from the influence of Govt. MMS has said that the investigation may be done against him by any agency then why is his ministers saying that no SIT would be formed. How can people trust that the CBI would investigate fairly against its own boss.
I don't understand that why the government is trying to protect itself so hardly. This is a democracy and if there is allegation of corruption. If the government has nothing to hide. Why are they not allowing a free and fair enquiry into these matters? If government is not afraid of anything then it should not involve it into this war of words. Democracy means full transparency and liability and responsibility.
Thank you for depicting the pangs of the common men,nursing their woes and miseries in silence.No form of government is good for the people unless it fuctions the way it is expected to,unless those who are sent to run it behave the way they are expecteted to. The so-called ministers are impervious to the existential horrors of the mothers who are turned away from the public distribution system outlets by the dealers who accessed it bribing the the corrupt politicians.The ministers and legislators are a clss by themselves in this country.They are ever alert to burgeon their privileges and perks.They are ensconced in luxury and oblivious to the crushing effects of their policy bankruptcy.They make sermons suiting the ambience where from they make it.They violate what they preach.The civil activists made a good start to kindle the common spirirt to outwit the designs of the ruling class in obliterating the poor instead of poverty.However,some detractors made a mess of it.Still we trust it
Congress party always invokes ‘a foreign hand’ when it sees a threat coming from any quarter. It started in the Times of Indira Gandhi and continued since then. Whether she was referring to Congress party’s own ‘hand’ or some other hand, it was hard for people to understand at that time, which may not be that difficult to understand in this era of Congress Rule.
That the ministers will stoop that low in their verbal attacks is just beyond anybody’s comprehension. One wonders if the fighters who had fought and laid down their lives for gaining independent, had ever imagined the kind of leaders we are seeing now!
You have rightly pointed out that the in India, we have an "already demoralized citizenry". Equally acceptable is your conclusion that 'team Manmohan' has a "larger share of the blame", though this team could be christened as 'team Sonia'. Also, there is the third team in the Opposition, no less (ir-)responsible than the Government. The Ministers go to any level of incivility for they do not have sufficient materials to defend themselves against the spate of corruption charges. So they choose to offend by any means. For the present ruling dispensation, the most nationalist and patriotic person in this country is its undisputed leader Sonia in whose better books every Minister likes to be in. They refuse to accede to the democratic right of any member or group of members of the civil society, team Anna included, to point out corruption in public life. The politicians, in general, have the egoism and confidence that they can win the elections by misleading and appeasing sections of voters and by the corrupt and criminalized politics of the day.
In recent times it seems Team Anna lacked direction.They should try to put more pressure on Govt. for passing the Lokpal bill which recieved tremendous response from people of India rather than doing allegations on PM.
The editorial should not have attempted to strike some sort of a balance
in its criticism of the ministers and Team Anna. It should have focused
entirely on the despicable nature of the charge of anti-national
activities backed by foreign funds which has been hurled against Team
Anna. If a leftist radical had made those remarks it would not have been
so shocking. Mrs Sonia Gandhi is answerable for this and must apologise
for what her partymen have said.
Hi All,
I think Team Anna didn't lose the path. Remember it is long and complex struggle. Team Anna are performing every action after rich discussion and brainstorming. It is not the Anna Team who lost the path, It is our government who does not know how to cope with their past ill doings.
Team Anna's demand charges on fifteen minister seems genuine. Nation want fair probe and strict action against culprits specially those in government and corporate.
We have an option of ignoring this tussle just as we regularly ignore
the brawls we come across on the national political theater. What hurts
in this case that the people who could be potentially powerful agents of
change are wasting themselves and the circumstances they could have
leveraged. And this is a loss for the entire nation.
You make us to believe that one side can come out with any sort of accusation wildly and the other side (minsters) have to behave themselves. So that your media can prove that silence is acceptance of guilt. Our PM keeps stoic silence in the wildest of accusations, what reward did he get? People will call him coward, or politically naive or somebody will say that as there is smoke there must be fire. How ridiculous! And about the claim for Anna's patriotism, just because he is speaking nonsense things about the ruling coalition's largest party (with maximum all India vote share and pan India presence) he becomes patriotic in your sight. How come Congress with its 206 seats in LS and minority in RS, can pass Lokpal bill? How can we ask Congress to do so in first place? It is inherently flawed. So the editorial's hatred for Congress is palpable but people of India may think other way round.
Every Indian citizen, be it Anna Hazare or Ramdev, has every right to
demand probe in the alleged scams (on the basis of CAG reports, etc.)
but when the MPs and ministers from the government put allegations
(but NEVER substantiate) on team Anna, it reeks of cheap retaliation.
I don't understand what stops the congress led government to
investigate the corruption charges on the Baba Ramdev!! IF Ramdev and
team Anna are getting/collecting/procuring/transferring money through
illegal means why can't government file IPC charges against them and
put the evidences of the same in public domain.
Should we assume that not only is this government CORRUPT, it is also
INEFFICIENT in bringing punishing guilty??
The PM is reponsible for the performance of the Country.
Today, the prices are sky rocketing, scams after scams -without any
tangible vibrant actions (2g case is kept idle.
Hi,
Team Anna is being used by India’s ill-wishers to create chaos and anarchy.
Inordinate time is spent to do reactive post mortems over allegations of corruption , than in pro-active growth based governance.
We keep criticizing Team Anna from last 2 years. Criticizing any one
easy, however if you have better way to pass Lokpal bill quickly and
solve the corruption problem write to them. Email address is available
on their site.
In my opinion, the huge support that Team Anna gathered last year was because it stimulated the emotional chords of the 'aam admi'. Now, the 'aam admi' has petrol prices to worry about. Whatever stimulates the emotion , gets the attention.
I believe we (the 'aam admi') should delve deeper into the issues of our country. Emotions should not be the sole trigger for formulating an opinion. Let us understand why things happen the way they do. Is it always 'us/we' and 'they/them' where 'we' are always victimized and 'they' are always wrong ?
A tinge of bias on any issue is inevitable but it should be arrested to the extent possible if one wants to have a balanced/educated opinion.
Of late, we do NOT think The Hindu is impartial; they appear heavily loaded against the present govt. Can the editorial team, do MMS's job, with no majority in either houses of parliament, better than how he is doing it now? He has not spared even Congress ministers and UPA partners face legal action, when found guilty. Be patient HIndu, and Anna, if you have enough popular support throw this govt out at the next election and bring in the 'holiest, perfect' leaders and with lokpal rid the country of all corruption. Let us see if such a 'miracle' of corruption-free India will happen...
This IS a death struggle. On one side, we have morality seeking to wrest for the people of India the "freedom" that was stolen from them in 1947. On the other hand, you have the brute force, that has ruled India ever since, fighting to preserve its corrupt and licentious way of life, free of any public accountability. The latter will never give up.
This editorial in poor taste or partitioned. How do you expect an elected
government all the time pulled by these comedy act of team Anna and baba
Ramdev. Why don'y you write in bold letters that their way of attack on the
parliament system and in the personal matters is unacceptable and they have to
change their style of functioning(if you still believe they are having enough people
support to change the system with one independent agency!!!)It is completely
ridiculous to blackmail a democratically elected govt. and your editorial is also
absurd to condemn only one side and allow the other side untouched. You media
can ignite passion to make news but the people are watching. That is the reason
now not even 500 people are assembling to listen to his music. If you are one
among the 500 to attend please advice him, not to blackmail the Government.
I & many many youths like me supported team Anna last year only because
the team was raising very pertinent issues. They were seen as prophets
of common causes. But the way they reduced their fights to personal
conflicts with elected leaders has blown them out of common imagination
& they no longer enjoy same regard, respect & most importantly
credibility that they enjoyed at the outset of their cause. Joining
hands with baba Ramdeva is final nail that team Anna has itself drawn
into its coffin. To make things worse for nation the team & the GOI has
now indulged into verbiages & attacking each other with private words
in dictionary. The main cause has been shifted to the back burner as
the GOI & Team Anna are at daggers drawn. Team Anna thinks they are the
only honest people on the planet & their words are gospel! The
agitation seems to have lost its way. Team Anna decides who is to be
sued & by whom. They don't believe at all in governance. Is this the
way democracy functions? No!!!!!
Lokpal bill can only be passed if congress is for it. There is a saying that if crockodile is the only transport available to cross river, then you do not quarrel with it. So, team Anna should tone down their comments.
It is unfortunate that our Ministers are behaving like KG students,does not deserve to be MPs and least to remain as Ministers as they use unparliamentary languages and try to better themselves as street rogues They do not understand what Anna Team says, verify the facts of accusation, do their home work before they call Anna team's accusations are wrong.Ours is a democracy and each one should behave like a statesman and their utterances should be dignified and couched in polite terms .No useful and constructive work is being done by the Government, the Ministers, the MPs and the political parties in the opposition.The coalition parties fights for their share of the public loot and blackmail the government to get more financial assistance to their States forgetting the norms governing for such allocation
In short we are not having a responsible government , a responsible Opposition and a responsible Democracy.The recent report of the rating agency poor( S & P ) is a wake up call
Everyone has utilised
his movement for political mileage.
You can't make an omelet without breaking an egg. And, this fight against corruption gets ugly before we see any results. But, this definitely is not the time to despair of the daily grind of the fight and discredit the objectives and/or the players. Some rebuttal: 1) "They shouldn't have taken the fight to the electoral arena." In a democracy, the voters are the ultimate authority. And, it's plain wrong to claim that electoral politics should somehow be isolated from the most burning issue of the day!! That voters are apathetic or largely fail to see the connection between corruption and their own plight is sad but the remedy is more engagement and not less. 2) "Team Anna quibble among themselves." It just proves that they are operating in a democratic setup where disagreements do happen but are settled harmoniously so as not to hurt the common goal. Compare this with the political parties and their leaders that have been around decades and how ugly their fights are.
It seems MMS and co have run out of excuses, ideas etc to blame someone else for
their own inaction. Fact is, if there is will there is a way and the Govt is proving that
politicians will preserve their means at whatever expense. Is this what we got
freedom for?
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