Opinion Taking it to the streets and studios

That’s all very well,but what happens when Parliament does not function for days on end? Most of this winter session,Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV channels have been running the signage,“House proceedings adjourned for the day”. So the entire Lokpal debate,barring the one on the “sense of the House” to end Hazare’s August fast,has been outside Parliament — either in the TV studios or wherever Team Anna takes it.

Since April,Team Anna has had a unity of purpose,a single-minded,narrow,focused and unbending determination to stick to their Lokpal bill,come what may. They are the ones taking to the streets,to the TV news studios,waving the issue like the Tricolour in the public’s face — and not the politicians who the people vote for. Thus far,the public has responded to them.

In all of this,the government and the Congress have lost the public relations war,always supposing they went into the battle with a media strategy. Even on Sunday,when most of the opposition had joined Anna Hazare on the podium and on the bill,Congress sat is solitary splendour (or is it splendid isolation?). The likes of Renuka Choudhary on We The People (NDTV 24×7) complained that Team Anna was moving forward too fast. Well yes,but at least they are moving and carrying people with them; the government,meanwhile,seems to be playing “statue”.

Also,it hasn’t been listening to public opinion that is all too frequently aired by TV news. On Sunday,in different cities,people on TV spoke up for the Lokpal and against corruption.

The very least the grand old party could have done is to launch an advertising blitzkrieg with its point of view and an action-taken report. They could have followed Mayawati’s example. Over the last few months,advertisements across news channels have lingered long and lovingly on her many achievements. If Congress had gone on the offensive with a strong media campaign on measures it had taken to fight corruption and why it was opposing certain demands of Team Anna,it would have mounted a stronger defence than the one it has managed to so far.

The Lokpal bill is,of course,of national importance; so is India winning every single match it plays on the cricket field. But as cricketer Manoj Tiwary reminded us while accepting the Man of the Match award in the last ODI against West Indies,a horrific human tragedy occurred in a Kolkata hospital. You wish the news channels had spent more time on Sunday covering its aftermath,barged into other buildings across the country and shown us their safety measures. Isn’t that exactly what Team Anna has done? Just barged into the country with the anti-corruption movement? Why not an anti-negligence movement?

Another idea: if there are daily cricket shows and Hindi news devotes daily updates to Saas Bahu aur Saazish,why not a prime time 15-minute show of financial news on all news channels,so that we better understand why India needs more than boot polish to shine?

Lastly,Stop Not is an advertisement that has an Indian soldier snacking on Stop Not at the warfront while the battle rages all around him and soldiers perish. He dies eating rather than fighting. Then,and wait for this,his soul rises to heaven on Stop Not. Will someone please stop him?

shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com