Wave after wave had hit the UPA in tsunami-type devastation with Charges of corruption like 2-G spectrum allocations, Commonwealth Games Financial irregularities, Adarsh Housing Society Scandal and much more. The UPA was down but not out. For the principal opposition Party-the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the miserable plight of the ruling regime was like bounties sent from Heaven. So upbeat was BJP that it succeeded in wash-out of the entire session of Parliament over government’s refusal to the demand for a Joint parliament Committee to go into Spectrum allocation.
The Think tank of the Congress just did not know what to do. It was forced to concede the demand for a JPC for the smooth passage of the Finance Bill during the Budget Session early this year. Suddenly out of nowhere appears a saviour for the UPA in the form of a Social Activist Anna Hazare literally stealing the most potent weapon from the BJP. Initially, the congress viewed this basically middle class movement against corruption as another head-ache. This actually, turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
This Jantar Mantar movement threw the leadership of the Party in total disarray. The BJP President Nitin Gadkari was first off the starting block. Condemning the Congress campaign to tarnish the image of the leadership against Corruption, he said “Anna Hazare”s agitation was reflection of the unrest in the country against corruption. The BJP has been campaigning against corruption and we stand with forces that are working for a corruption-free India. “But what we are witnessing is a sustained campaign against corruption. This is not the way…such attempts to discredit these people…the Congress is trying to defame all the agitators and entire movement altogether.”
Following the leader, the Party’s strategist and sting master had this to say “The Government would be advised to contemplate on how to fight corruption and not on how to cover up for corruption”. Intimidation of activists involved in this entire movement against corruption and graft and the involvement of senior ruling party politicians does not speak well of the UPA or the Government.
But the Party Organ “The Organiser” has taken just the opposite stand. The Organiser dismissed Hazare’s campaign as “largely media-driven and slammed attempts to paint the entire political class as corrupt”. While claiming that the outpouring of public support for Hazare’s movement reflected outrage all-pervasive corruption, the Organiser says “his movement caught the peoples imagination with the help of an obliging and aggressive electronic media that whipped up mass frenzy in favour of the Jan Lok pal Bill without going into the merits of the Bill”. “The ruling dispensation, reeling under the tremendous public pressure to come clean, found the easy way out by accepting all the demands put forth by Hazare including the ones that are unreasonable”.