Wrong again

Calling Team Anna anti-national is to circle back to the same debased discourse they started

Calling Team Anna anti-national is to circle back to the same debased discourse they started

Union minister V. Narayanasamy certainly didnt advance his own cause by declaring Team Anna anti-national. It is not anti-national to agitate against the government or to flag public corruption. It is one thing to debate Team Annas shallow certainties and contempt for representative institutions and constitutional offices and entirely another to call it propped up by foreign forces. Narayanasamys blustery accusations are no different from Anna Hazare carving the world into traitors and patriots,or Kiran Bedis crude comedy with the scarf,accusing the government of masks and multiple standards.

Right before these ill-considered remarks,the PMOs official communication to Team Anna had responded to its accusations and demands in a clear,firm manner. Laying out the governments anti-corruption measures,the PMOs letter politely told Team Anna where to get off rejecting their demand that special investigation teams and fast-track courts be set up to investigate and consider corruption allegations against the PM and 14 cabinet ministers. It pointed out that Team Anna had furnished no proof of its own,apart from a leaked CAG draft,and that the existing legal and statutory apparatus was fully capable of addressing any concerns about corruption. The letter had a composure and authority that had been lacking in the governments response to Team Anna thus far. Without appeasing or offending,it conveyed the fact that the government was not going to let unsubstantiated allegations about corruption against public servants hold up decision-making any more.

Narayanasamy should have resisted the temptation to speak,after that letter. Instead,his remarks gave opposition parties further ammunition,and brought back the same degraded discourse that Team Anna specialises in. Anna Hazare and his comrades are insurgents without ideas their technique is to throw a lot of mud,and declare various individuals compromised,without any attempt to marshal evidence,or to rationally persuade. The government does not have to make its case to Team Anna but it doesnt have to resort to the same childish taunts either.