Opinion The Elephant and the Mouse

The Elephant was the King of the jungle. He was fifteen feet tall and weighed one ton.

August 21, 2011 12:44 AM IST First published on: Aug 21, 2011 at 12:44 AM IST

The Elephant was the King of the jungle. He was fifteen feet tall and weighed one ton. All the other animals in the jungle had to bow to him. The Elephant rampaged through the jungle,destroying all in his wake. Till he came across a mouse. The mouse was barely four inches in size with a dainty tail and just one tooth.

The Elephant said the mouse was a danger to the jungle. His tail could be vicious. He had to be thrown out of the jungle. Other animals could not understand why the mouse so threatened the Elephant. The Elephant said he had found the mouse eating some rotten cheese ten years ago. So,he was rotten still.

Alas,the mouse refused to go away. He stayed there. The more the Elephant bellowed,the longer did the tail of the mouse grow. At last,the Elephant got tangled in the long tail of the mouse and had to ask the mouse to release him.The mouse was not easy to deal with. He said the Elephant had to stop rampaging in the jungle and menacing other animals if he wanted release.

Fables apart,what we witnessed last week was the abject surrender of a powerful government to the forces of civil society. Indeed,one should say Congress Party rather than the government because the UPA partners have been conspicuous by their absence. In any other democracy,at least one,if not more,Cabinet ministers would resign. In April,the UPA dealt with Anna Hazare deftly. It was almost like the Indian cricket team which had just won the World Cup. In August,rather like the Indian team,the Congress faced a whitewash. What had changed?

My own hypothesis is that after the departure of Sonia Gandhi for her operation abroad,the Congress fell apart. It has been used to constant guidance from 10 Janpath. Any independent thinking or decision making has been discouraged all these years. Now with the benign control gone,the Congress became rudderless. It had an advantage over Anna Hazare derived from its legitimacy as elected representatives. It presumed the mantle of democracy and went into an aggressive overdrive.

The attempt to defame Anna as a corrupt man by several senior Congress spokespersons was frightening and pathetic at the same time. It was obvious that the Congress could not tolerate any opposition,no matter how small. The idea that the alleged misuse of Rs 2.2 lakh was a serious offence was just laughable. That kind of bribe would not get you the watchmans post in Adarsh Building.

It was at this juncture that the Congress began to lose the battle. Its assertion that no protest is valid while a Bill is with Parliament is not worth debate. In all democracies,the people can protest before,during and after a Bill has been passed by their Parliament. I have witnessed massive demonstrations in Parliament Square during the Fox Hunting Bill. The UPA has also treated Parliament with contempt in the matter of the PAC and its report,nor has it let the JPC fulfill its mandate. It is rather late in the day for Congress to wrap itself in the mantle of Parliamentary legitimacy.

By the evening of Tuesday,the family had arrived to extract Congress from its mess. Rahul Gandhi came and read the Riot Act. You could see it in the changed demeanour of the same spokespeople who had swaggered earlier in the day and now were eating the humble pie.

All pretence of legality of police and magistrates notwithstanding,Anna was released on the command of an ordinary MP who holds no position higher than general-secretary of the Congress and a member of the Gang of Four during the absence of the president. So much for sovereignty of Parliament. Can you blame the crowds in the streets supporting Anna Hazare for not trusting politicians?