Clueless in the Capital

Where did the government go wrong? Did it underestimate Team Annas capacity to mobilise public support or was it a misplaced confidence following the Baba Ramdev incident at Ramlila Maidan that prompted the government to think it could get an upper hand on Hazare? Was this a crass demonstration of authority and power by the government at a time when it should have exercised restraint and patience?

There is a growing sense within the UPA and outside that the leadership failed to demonstrate astute political management at the very beginningwhen the campaigns initiated by Hazare and Baba Ramdev began to take shape a few months ago. The absence of a clear and consistent approach has only complicated the issue and every decision taken subsequently has resulted in a loss of face to the government.

Home Minister P Chidambaram conceded as much in the Lok Sabha last Wednesday. While responding to BJP charges that the governments approach of bypassing Parliament and engaging civil society through the joint drafting committee on the Lokpal Bill was misplaced,he said,If you tell us today that was perhaps not a wise decision,I am not going to quarrel with you. If you tell us today that please do not follow that as a precedent,I will not quarrel with you.

While the BJPs criticism may not be unexpected,the government hasnt been spared by its own party or its allies within the UPA. Worse,the midnight swoop on Baba Ramdev at Ramlila Maidan left many within the government wondering if the government was simply inviting trouble. There were attempts even then to insulate the Congress and the Prime Minister by laying the blame at the door of the ministerial group headed by the home minister,but the members were quick to clarify informally that the PMO had been very much in the know of things.

The Congresss allies,who have been left out of the consultation process,too have been scathing in their criticism. At a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last weekthe first time the allies were asked for their viewsparties like the NCP and the National Conference did not mince words when they told the Congress that it had bungled.

Flawed from start

Very few believe the joint drafting committee on a Lokpal Bill was a good idea,pointing out that the exercise was doomed to be a non-starter. Even before the minutes of the first meeting on April 16 had been finalised,the two sides were snapping at each other. The dim view that HRD Minister Kapil Sibal held of the entire exercise,which he informally conveyed to the media,did not take much time to reach the Hazare camp. Within no time,it flared into a full-fledged confrontation,with Hazare dashing off a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi,charging Sibal of derailing the process even before it had started.

The entire process was also marked by intermittent campaigns to try and discredit the Hazare campaign as well as members of Team Anna. It began with the circulation of a CD,which came out within days of the formation of the drafting committee,that sought to target the Bhushan father-son duo. This was followed by AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh raising questions about the funding of the Jantar Mantar protest. The most recent was Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari accusing Hazare of being corrupt from head to toe,with an old report as basis.

As the Hazare campaign picks pace,aided by an effective media management team,those managing the issue are once again under fire. There are said to be differences in the government team handling the matter with those like P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal favouring a hardline approach while others like Salman Khursheed and Ambika Soni preferring a soft approach.

Now with Hazare saying that he will not budge until the Jan Lokpal Bill is introduced in Parliament,a senior minister said he fears the government will now be forced to include clauses of the Jan Lokpal Bill in the government Bill.

The flip-flops

A day before Hazare was arrested,Rahul Gandhi held discussions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other senior leaders on the Lokpal Bill and the governments stand on the demands of civil society. The possibility of Hazares arrest,said sources,did not come up during the discussions. Home Minister P Chidambaram was at the party office for over half-an-hour but he was not called in for the deliberations.

However,the next morning,after Hazare was arrested by the Delhi Police,many Congress MPs took up the matter with senior leaders,including Rahul,saying the government should not be seen as trampling on the democratic right to protest. The young party general secretary swung into action,holding discussions with senior leaders,including Pranab Mukherjee,Chidambaram and Kamal Nath. Late in the afternoon,shortly before the Central Election Committee met to select party candidates for the Uttar Pradesh elections,Rahul met the Prime Minister separately. They were soon joined by A K Antony and Pranab Mukherjee. By evening,Rahul was being hailed for his intervention and for correcting what party leaders believed was the government’s mistake.

This is the latest in what is becoming a trend: embarrassment for the government and clean chit for the party. Last April,when Hazares fast-unto-death had forced the government to set up a joint drafting committee comprising ministers and civil society representatives,party leaders had expressed their dissent. Again,in June,when four senior ministers of the governmentsaid to be armed with an externment noticehad gone to the airport to meet Baba Ramdev to persuade him to call off his planned fast,the party had distanced itself. Sources said even the Congress president had not been kept in the loop. After the incident,Digvijaya Singh chose to pay a visit to Pranab Mukherjee to make his displeasure known. Dada,naak kat gayi, was said to have been the party general secretarys first reaction as they met. Again,the party had distanced itself from the police crackdown at Ramlila Maidan to disperse Ramdevs supporters,with Anil Shastri,the editor of Congress mouthpiece Sandesh,tweeting that it was not the partys decision.

From Day 1,the party was sending confusing signals. With the civil society closely aligned with usindividually with Soniaji and Rahulji and institutionally in the form of the National Advisory Councilwe had to tread cautiously and there was no clear direction coming from the party, said a minister involved in crisis management.

On April 5,when Hazare had gone on fast,party spokesman Manish Tewari had reacted cautiously: We respect Hazare very much but the path he has adopted is premature. According to party sources,days before his fast,Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had spoken to Hazare,who agreed to cancel his plan if the government agreed to introduce the Lokpal Bill on the first day of the monsoon session of Parliament and pass it in the same session.

When Chavan conveyed it to the Prime Minister,he said there was no political consensus on it. After the experiment of the joint drafting committee failed,Vilasrao Deshmukh was roped in. But that failed too, a senior Congress functionary told The Sunday Express.

Meanwhile,partymen had also sensed Sonia Gandhis unease about the arm-twisting methods of civil society representatives. Replying to a letter from Hazare on April 19,Sonia had expressed her displeasure at their ways. She wrote that the Lokpal Bill was very much on the National Advisory Councils agenda until the process was overtaken,as you know,by subsequent events (Hazares fast). Subsequent weeks saw an incremental hardening of stance by the Congress,with Digvijaya Singh stating that the RSS was behind Ramdevs fast and Janardhan Dwivedi calling Ramdev and Hazare mukhauta (mask) of the BJP. When Hazare wrote another letter to Sonia complaining about the Congress leaders attack on him,he got a terse reply on June 18. She said that she did not wish to add anything as she had already made her views clear in the previous letter.

It was in this backdrop that the Congress Working Committee,which met on June 24,held a unanimous view that civil society representatives should be dealt with firmly. Summing up the CWC deliberations,Dwivedi had said,There was a general view that it will not be correct to concede demands whenever a motley group of four to five persons starts making demands that are contrary to the Constitution. Any demand that hurts the democratic polity cannot be accepted…Anybody will raise any demand. The government should not show any weakness. This kind of pressure tactics is not appropriate. This was the general refrain in the meeting. About a week later,Sonia gave an audience to Hazare and his associates at 10,Janpath,but it turned out to be a mere formality.

Even as the government was determined not to give in to the pressure tactics of Hazare,the party think-tank grew anxious about the media-driven campaign in favour of the campaign. At a meeting in its war-room at Gurudwara Rakabganj Road on August 12,they decided not to make any personal attack on Hazare,a strategy that was abandoned within 48 hours with party spokesman Manish Tewari calling him corrupt.

We have been trying to run with the hare and hunt with the hound,but the strategy does not seem to be working, a party MP told The Sunday Express.