In an oblique reference to the Anna Hazare movement,noted economist and academic Jagdish N Bhagwati today questioned the manner in which civil society groups try to force the government to accept their demands without question. He also backed the UPA governments handling of Annas agitation for a strong Lokpal,saying the civil society was free to make suggestions but it cannot be allowed to impose solutions. The civil society can flag an issue. They cant flog it. Theirs cant be the last word on the issue. The UPA government has been exactly right: civil society can agitate,it can make suggestions,but it cannot be allowed to impose solutions, he said,delivering the 24th Intelligence Bureau Endowment lecture on Designing Institutions for Governance Reform. While acknowledging that the civil society groups play an important role in a democratic set up,Bhagwati said the civil society must play a creative rather than a destructive role. At minimum,they (civil society) also need to learn the value of dialogue instead of diatribe. The Anna Hazare movement was startling in the way that the NGOs fell out,often with high decibel denunciations directed at their own kind,turning into uncivil society instead, he said. Referring to the adamant stand often adopted by activists,he said,The sad reality is that the more prominent NGO activists like Arundhati Roy and Vandana Shiva subtract from the public debate by refusing to respect reasoned argument. As I have once remarked,their conclusions are more obvious than their arguments. Talking about corruption in higher and lower bureaucracy,Bhagwati observed that the UPA government had responded in the last few weeks to both types of corruption by introducing a blitzkrieg of legislations.
