Invisible Hand in Anna Movement
The sequence of events since the Anna Hazare movement suggests a conspiratorial political roadmap.
Was a movement spearheaded by India against Corruption during the UPA-II period created by the RSS? Were Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal propped up by the Hindutva mother-body? These are not new questions and the RSS itself would perhaps not fight shy of recognising its role in the developments since 2010-11 against Manmohan Singh-led UPA-2.
A couple of years ago, when this writer asked similar questions to Advt Prashant Bhushan during his conversation with students from Pune, he admitted of the possibility of such a deeper scheme being operational without the knowledge of the core members of the India against Corruption team. Looking at the sequence of events since 2010-11, retrospectively, it could be concluded that most of the things were, indeed, orchestrated. At least, it was being ensured that most of the events would produce a particularly desired result. The question is who did it and for whose benefit?
Considering the Anna movement as a spontaneous spurt of unrest would be deceiving oneself. Spontaneity has no longevity, while the Anna movement had a lasting impact on Indian politics and on society as well. If the movement was not as spontaneous as it appeared those days, who masterminded it? Or, at least who effectively moulded the movement to generate certain effects? There was a past to the Anna movement and here is a present resulting out of the Anna movement. Anna Hazare and Aravind Kejriwal were neither national figures before the movement nor could they acquire that status post the movement. They rose to national fame only during the actual period of the movement. Prior to the movement, it was the dominance of the discourse on the issues of the rights-based framework of governance. The discourse featured the several civil society groups, the left parties and the Sonia-Manmohan dispensation. After the movement, it's nothing but the dominance of Narendra Modi leading the discourse as per the cues of the RSS.
Yet, attributing the creation of the Anna movement to the RSS is unthoughtful and undesirable. The organization has no intention, and no capability, to generate a mass movement on the issues of governance or livelihood. However, it has immense capacity to harvest the unrest on the issues of unemployment, corruption and, in general, anti-incumbency, to the advantage of its own political purpose. RSS did it in the 1970s before and after the emergency, as also in the 1980s by riding the wave of corruption allegations against the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. Neither J.P. nor V.P. Singh were propped up by the RSS. However, RSS was able to force its political outfit into the mainstream of Indian politics by siding with both of them. The experience of being ostracized, which Jawaharlal Nehru masterfully implemented, made the RSS learn the art of siding with the popular mood in the country. On the other hand, it was the obliviousness of the anti-Congress anti-RSS political forces that enabled the Jan Sangh, and later on the BJP, to thrive.
Undoubtedly, the RSS used the Anna movement to overcome a deep crisis of relevance, and others allowed themselves to be used by the RSS.
There must be more than what meet the eye to the anti-corruption movement against the UPA-II regime. The ground for it was built through a national consolidation behind the Congress on the issue of the civil nuclear deal with the United States. The Left and the then opportunistic but moribund leadership of the BJP were considered to be the main hurdles in the realization of the Indo-US pact. Dr. Manmohan Singh's insistence on the deal and Com. Prakash Karat's resistance to it was well utilized to create a sharp wedge between the Congress and the Left parties. Even in the aftermath of the Pakistan sponsored 26/11 terrorist attack on Mumbai in 2008, the major agenda of national security in the 2009 Lok Sabha election was about the survival of the Indo-US nuclear deal. It was parallelly followed up with consistent attacks on the Left for its industrialization agenda in West Bengal. It was ironic that everyone who was critical of the CPM for allegedly keeping West Bengal industrially backward, rallied against the Left's efforts for industrialization of the state. Even the civil society groups across the country turned against the Left Front, as state atrocities in Bengal were painted as equivalent to a genocide.
Diminishing the Left's influence on national polity and defeating the Left Front government in Bengal were the beginning of the grand scheme. The Left's decimation was achieved in 2011, a year when Anna Hazare began to capture national headlines.
Once fragmentation had taken place in the coordination amongst the left, civil society organizations and the Sonia-Manmohan duo, the India against Corruption scheme was played out on the national scene. The target was vilification of Dr. Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi along with discrediting of the entire political class. Many within the civil society organizations and some from the Left joined the Anna bandwagon as all of them trained their guns on the Sonia-Manmohan combination. Along with the top political duo, the target included the regional satraps like Mulayam Singh, Laloo Prasad, Mayawati and Sharad Pawar.
Even the established leadership within the BJP was not to be spared, as was evident from targeting of Nitin Gadkari and his eventual replacement with Rajnath Singh as party president. When everything was falling in place as per the scheme, two irritants cropped up.
The first was Lal Krishna Advani's announcement about launching a Rath Yara against corruption. It was subverted smoothly by non-cooperation and non-funding. The second was the Kejriwal cohorts' decision to launch a political outfit. It was a surprise development, but what came as a blow was the Aam Adami Party's formation of the government in Delhi in 2013. Immediately, Kejriwal came on the radar and his national ambitions were destroyed.
From Sangh Swayamsewaks to BJP workers to Modi supporters, all hated Kejriwal as much as they hated the Left parties or Sonia Gandhi, if not more.
The strongest of the fortresses had fallen in 2014 as the Narendra Modi wave swept Bihar, Assam, Maharashtra, Karnataka and all the states above the Vindhyas except Punjab. The most significant of these was Uttar Pradesh. The project to corner the Left and to vilify the Gandhi-Nehru family along with regional leaders continued post-2014. It was now the turn of the civil society organizations and protest groups. In the absence of a substantial political presence of the Left and the dimunition of the power of the few Congress leaders, civil society groups have become the targets and are being hunted down mercilessly.
The RSS has no qualms about it. But it is much more desired by the invisible hand that is forcing rampant privatization on India, unconcerned about the growing unemployment. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has championed the nuclear deal as if it was his baby and the BJP has made significant in-roads into the politics of West Bengal.
Read this article published in Asiaville on 19th Sep 2020