Team Anna Plus

When it comes to Team Anna and the stage, the symbol has always signified as much as the substance. So Sunday’s gathering at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar featuring Anna Hazare flanked by politicians from the CPM and CPI to the BJP, Samajwadi Party, JD(U), TDP, BJD and the Akali Dal, was a significant one. While this may be a shrewd self-unmasking of Team Anna’s apolitical veneer, elevating the movement’s level so to say, it was also a strong message unambiguously directed at the target of the gathering — the Congress-led UPA government. Everyone on stage — with little agreement between them otherwise — knew that the Congress wouldn’t be there and its absence, therefore, became the message. For the protesting professionalism and momentum that the movement seems to have gathered, the Congress has only itself to blame — the party perpetually on the defensive, the government adrift.

For their part, opposition leaders who spoke from the dais need to remember their primary public identity as parliamentarians, as people’s representatives — the target of ridicule by Team Anna. After all, the gathering at Jantar Mantar occurred when Parliament is in session, with an all-party debate due and the Lokpal bill about to be presented before the House. That is where the bill has to be debated down to its details and the democratic legislative mechanism allowed to decide its fate. In fact, the opposition would do well to keep in mind the very sensible notes of caution sounded by its leaders on Team Anna’s stage, about the need to not rush ahead with maximalist demands and, above all, granting the supremacy of Parliament. The call of “direct democracy” and law-making in the street is a wild one, and it will not sound the same coming from parliamentarians.

As for Anna Hazare and his team, basking in the after-glow of Sunday’s show, the presence of politicians may appear to give them a shot in the arm but undermining Parliament and holding the country to ransom — by constantly shifting the goalpost — can turn the tables any time.