Opinion Dharmakshetre Kurukshetre

The Mahabharata war was won by the Pandavas employing many dirty tricks

April 24, 2011 01:16 AM IST First published on: Apr 24, 2011 at 01:16 AM IST

The Mahabharata war was won by the Pandavas employing many dirty tricks. They may have had a reason since the Kauravas had treated them badly,denying them their heritage,cheating at a dice game etc. In return,Yudhishthira lied to Drona about Ashwatthama,

Arjun killed Karna while he was mending his chariot and Bhima smashed Duryodhanas thighs which was against the rules of war. All on the advice of Krishna.

That was then,but do we need to have a dirty tricks war now? On April 9 when Anna Hazare gave up his fast,one felt proud that democratic India had come to a sensible decision of having a joint committee,an innovation which gave civil society a voice. Alas,everything since then done by both sides has been a disappointment. We had the arbitrary deadline of August 15 and then the RSS intrusion. Now we have the Congress retaliating (amid denials of course) and maligning members of the Hazare team. There were already rumblings even before the settlement of April 9 about the leaders of the Hazare movement. Doubts were expressed as to whether there was a mass movement or just a media hoopla.

But once the settlement had been reached,the dogs of war were unleashed by the Congress to denigrate the Bhushans and every one else.

Fair enough. As Indians,we look to the Mahabharata for our morality and the message is clear. If you need to cheat to win,do it; that is Dharma. But this is the 21st century. We have learned morals from other sourcesBuddhist,Jain,Christian,Sikh,Muslim,Parsi. If the demand is that the Congresss civil society representativesAruna Roy and Harsh Mander be included,what is wrong with it? The initiative is with the UPA to co-opt them in. The more the merrier. Surely the Congress is not arguing that our civil society people are better (more pliable?) than yours?

Suppose the campaign against the Bhushans is successful and the dogs of war unleashed against them are able to get them off the committee,will that look good for the government? Or will it look like the government is evading the tough questions of governance? If,say,only three civil society members pass muster according to Congresss exacting standards of incorruptibility (applied to others,not to its own),will that enhance the credibility of whichever Lokpal Bill emerges at the end or will it look like yet another link in the daisy chain of forty-two years of failure to enact an effective bill?

And why is the Congress taking up the cudgels on behalf of the UPA? Does it have something to fear from the process? Why this aggressive defensiveness against non-governmental people? Would it not be admirable to show flexibility and being in tune with the new younger India to roll along with the revolution and ride the tiger? Pandit Nehru did accommodate the agitation for linguistic states even though he did not agree with it. What is different now?

There is a great chance to do something unique about the Lokpal Bill. It is not a panacea and many more bills will have to be passed. But this is a symbolic beginning. A whole generation of young peoplethe twitter generationhas come of age,agitating about the Lokpal Bill. It would be cynical to thwart their hopes even if it may look good for the shop-worn professionals to have done down a potent threat. It would be generous of the UPA and the Congress to embrace the change and gain from it.

While everyone knows I am not religious,I cannot resist reminding people on all sides of this dispute what Jesus said about denouncing the adultress. He who among you who has not sinned can cast the first stone. Of course they did not listen to him. They crucified him.

Happy Easter Sunday!