Why Anna Shouldn't Go Political

This is a blunder. I am saying this because I am a strong supporter of Anna, his team and the whole idea of fighting for an honest society. I am saying this because I feel Team Anna are falling into the trap that Congress long wanted them to fall in. I am saying this because in India the only place where there isn’t even the presence of 1% honesty is our electoral politics and our elections. I am saying this because I am worried that the idea with which Anna and his team started their agitation will be lost in the hustle and bustle of our dirty politico domain. I am saying this because I reposed my faith on the team for an entirely different reason.

Don’t get me wrong. I perhaps would be the most delighted person in the planet if I see Arvind Kejriwal as our next home minister or Dr. Kiran Bedi as the next chief-minister of Delhi. I will be equally delighted to see an honest man like Santosh Hegde donning the defense minister’s hat in future. But having delightful wishes are one thing but getting blinded by that and drifting away from the hard truth is for sure a mistake. While the probabilities are in literal sense mouthwatering, the bitter truth of our politics is one heck of a nuisance that we can't so easily forgo. Can we? A domain which is full with idiots and criminals how fair it would be for us to expect few simple individuals from our civil society could make it through is anybody’s guess. I have my reservations in expecting Team Anna making it big and effective in our elections as there are too many things that affect the political outcome than just popular support. Team Anna might be popular among the citizenry but would that be sufficient in translating them to votes and that too in numbers to pose any kind of threat to the hawks already sitting pretty? While I might differ here with the popular perception of Anna and his latest announcements, I have my own set of reasons to back it up.

The Real Support: - Hell, I could be grossly wrong with this but nonetheless a concern which is hard to overlook. No doubt we see a lot of people on venues where Anna fasts. We also see a hell lot of people doing symbolic fasts and marches on the street with placards clearly indicating the support. We also see a hell lot of people pouring in with their vengeance on various social platforms against the present day government and their indifference towards the wishes of the masses. The question is, are the numbers sufficient enough to win elections? If yes, then are those all who are all over the place pledging their support will venture out on the voting day, stand in a queue under the arrogant sun and vote? Here where my doubts start to peep from nowhere. I know this is not the problem of team Anna but with us. Our perpetual hatred towards casting our votes is what all our filthy politicians are cashing on. Even though we want everyone else to do their duty for the nation and that too with all honesty, we seldom want ourselves to come forward and set an example. We go overbroad with our announcements on moral superiority but never want to exercise them ourselves first. That’s where the problem is. It is no wonder that majority of Anna supporters are from the urban block of the society where we the so called elitists know what corruption is and how badly we as individuals are affected with it. Does this hit an average person residing in our villages? Even though it does, is he/she that concerned about it the way we people in our towns are? I mean are there that many number of avenues at disposal with our villagers to get exploited by our corrupt officials as we guys in our towns do? Certainly not. In nutshell, the number of reasons that we have in our cities to bend ourselves before corrupt officials to get our job done is way, way higher than that in our villages. And don’t forget ours’ is a country of villages where corruption might not even feature in the list of top ten problems for almost everyone. Here team Anna suffers from a kind of Catch-22 phase where the people we are hit by corruption only know how to shout but seldom vote while the people who don’t hesitate to stand under the sun and vote care least on what corruption is and who are corrupt that should be thrown out. For Anna to be even successful by a tenth of what we expect him to, we the so called educated and adherent fans of him need to vote enemas. But can we? Well a huge, huge question.  

Diluting Doesn’t Help: - I still could vouch for Anna and team. You still could do the same. But will all of them who are currently supporting keep on doing the same without having a question or two popping in their heads? Yet again, it is not the problem of team Anna but the overtly large number of inflow of pseudo intellectuals in our society. Though we time and again elect people to govern us with all honesty but instead see them getting engaged with all sorts of nefarious activities, other than governance or honesty and never question them but we have a zillion of them to ask if even Anna forgets to mention the ‘Jan’ in the word ‘Jan Lokpal’ once. Ours’ have the intelligent quotient at such high levels that we start questioning the inclusiveness of the whole Anna movement if we see Arvind Kejriwal sitting in the second row. Is there a rift? Is there differences brewing among the team members? Are they thinking in different directions unlike the unidirectional approach few days back? Not to blame the patrons entirely, our idiotic media always pushes through their agenda into our psyche, even if we don’t want to. So are we really sure that few wouldn’t break away from supporting Anna since he decides to go political? This could be one big setback for Anna and his team if it happens since they are already fighting a lost battle. The whispers are getting louder since Friday. There I can see few visibly disappointed individuals amongst his own team members. From Swami Agnivesh to Santosh Hegde and Medha Patekar, there seems to have a difference of opinion on what Anna plans to do. If the crack within the team is visible then how many dissatisfied souls would be among the supporters is anybody’s guess. Can team Anna really afford to lose any of their hard earned supporters in this crucial juncture? Perhaps not. You may voraciously disagree to my words, but it is not a hidden fact that team Anna is losing its supporters at quite an alarming rate, which I am sure would be a concern for them as well.

Congress Wants Precisely That: - Believe me, Congress reptiles must have thrown a party to their near and dear ones on Friday. And there are reasons for such celebrations. (a) Now the movement which was all but driven and managed by citizens of this country would be managed by a bunch of people (b) While pointing fingers at the agitation before always invariably brought a lot of flak for the party now could be done with a lot more ease since now individuals could be targeted without hurting the general sentiment (c) Most important – Now Congress can very well play their dirty politics, which unfortunately they are master at without having to explain their real intension to the citizens. To materialize the rotten intent, Congress readily have rabid mongrels like Digvijay Singh whom they can let loose on Anna and his team without bothering for the repercussions. And it is only fair if they let lose knowing how dirty our politics and politicians are. We as citizens shouldn’t complain then as every political party does some shit hurling on the other every now and then. The strength of team Anna was the support of the masses which even Congress, how idiotic they might be were afraid of hurting directly. Since Anna now becomes a political figure from being a social activist earlier, is subjected to all such political belligerent without anyone questioning the ethics of the Congress party. You can’t insult a social activist but certainly your political opponents and I don’t see any reason why someone should have any problem with that.
 

The Governance: - I strongly believe a good student might not be a good teacher. People in team Anna are good and honest; no two ways about it. But can they be equally highflying being administrators? It no way an outright equation that honest people will also be excellent administrators. Honesty and being a good administrator are two different ball games. I am not sure if I would be believable if I say, I feel the need of a little dishonesty there to be a good administrator. Guys straight from the moral copybook end up as bad managers since they always disappoint a lot of people. And there is no dispute that administration is an act of making a hoard of people working together as a team. Seldom there is a chance for dictate of individuals if you want your machinery to function smoothly without any hiccups. Stubborn approach towards managing things might look fancy from a distance and we can romanticize with outright no-nonsense governance, but yet still it is not viable in grassroots. Anna elaborating his method of dealing with drunkards in his village by tying them to the pole and beating the shit out of them but could this be a solution pan-India? How many of Anna supporters will agree to be tied to a pole and beaten black and blue for they came home drunk like a dog on weekends? This could be the silliest of examples but still it could easily be a pointer on what I want to elaborate.
 

The way I look at Anna’s latest announcement is nothing but a loss-loss situation. If they haven’t drifted from their core goal of making Lokpal a mandate, then I see things getting miserably horrible in future. Even if the chances of a strong Lokpal through the agitation way is bleak since we are ruled by absolute rascals, there still a chance unlike the political route, where I see things decimating like nine pins. What if Team Anna loses the election pathetically, which I am sure will happen? Can they again comeback to their original method of agitation and still gather the amount of crowd they currently are doing? Can they even comeback to their agitation way at the first place? Though it may look fancy to have a political approach but the downside is, it is a double edge sword where the chances of falling down precariously and cutting yourself into nonexistent pieces is more than just a possibility.
 

That said, I would still fancy to see a poster with “VOTE FOR ARVIND KEJRIWAL” written on it.