Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Anna & India's August Kranti - But for how long?

On the risk of being called unpatriotic, disloyal, traitor, coward, terrorist, cynical and worse even congress supporter, I am putting it down. I don’t believe anything significant will come out of this protest. I am simply putting the points which I have pondering around for a long time, trying to get a powerful counter argument but didn’t find any. But I would be more than happy if anyone can convince me wrong. So here are some of my reasons for being skeptical or nearly sure about the final result of this protest which is going to be nothing:

1. The movement is supported by all the sections of the society, predominantly Middle class. Now for how long do you think that a working middle class is going to miss their work and keep protesting? I am not sure if I give it more than a week. The problem is the issue at hand; corruption does not risk the jobs of people. If that would have been the case, then I am sure the protest would have gone for long. Corruption, yes it hurts but it is not taking away our jobs and Job is going to suck back the people in their regular life.

2. The other significant factor is the absence of student bodies as universities and schools are still open. Such movements like 1975(JP Movement), 1990(Movement against VP Singh) had a great impact due to involvement of universities. I believe the success of this movement depends largely on that.

3. Whatever happens, I am not sure that it’s going to hurt Congress in long run. Memories of Indian People are of very short duration and it has been proved again and again with issues like MP bribe scandal, Indian Cricket team victories and defeat, reservation bill. Issues definitely stir up the scenes for a while but once it settles down, we Indians don’t ponder much about them much.

4. Team Anna is definitely doing a great job but the problem is their version of Lokpal Bill is way too tight for the other political parties to accept. It’s also safer to say that Corruption is an issue on which no political parties will lend their support to the motion. So it’s going to be a movement of people v/s political powers across all level. And absence of any support from political parties and students further strengthens my doubt over the success of this protest.

5. Last but not the least; I am not sure how many people are actually aware of the difference between Jan Lokpal and Lokpal bill, for which they are protesting.

I would love to be wrong on these issues so please prove me wrong