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Voices of
dissonance against Anna and Co
Friday April 22, 2011 06:38:08 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi:
Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, historian K.N. Panikkar and activist
Shabnam Hashmi Friday strongly objected to the "authoritarian"
attitude adopted by social reformer Anna Hazare in his fight
against corruption and accused him of being affiliated to
right-wing Hindu groups.
The trio expressed their reservations over the formation of the
joint committee for drafting the anti-graft Lokpal Bill and the
way Hazare "dictated" his conditions to formulate the panel's
terms and references.
They claimed the Lokpal Bill was inherently flawed because the
ombudsman that the proposed legislation seeks to create was like
creating "a permanent state of emergency in the country".
"It (the bill) goes... militates against democracy. A legislation
may be necessary to prevent corruption in the country but the
Lokpal Bill cannot do that," Panikkar, a renowned historian, told
reporters.
"The Lokpal is likely to function in a social vacuum as a super
judicial authority, undermining and subversive of the judicial
system. It is an escapist institute. It also provides the state a
safety wall to get out of the crisis," he said.
He said the anti-corruption campaign launched by Hazare has been
hijacked by right-wing Hindu activists.
"RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) activists have been
participating in the movement. And the attitude of Anna has been
one of justifying the past history of Hindu communal forces,"
Panikkar said, referring to Hazare lauding of Gujarat Chief
Minister Narendra Modi's developmental efforts.
He alleged that Modi has in the past targetted the Muslim minority
of Gujarat. "Development is comprehensive and you cannot have a
section kept away from the process."
Mahesh Bhatt too objected to some people comparing Hazare with
Mahatma Gandhi and Jaya Prakash Narayan. "You cannot claim to be
fighting against corruption but neglect communalism. Being
apolitical, Anna could praise Modi for development, but ignored
his moral problem."
He likened the whole drama of Hazare's fast-unto-death anti-graft
protest and the government capitulating so swiftly, to the climax
of a Hindi movie or an Indian television soap.
"This will raise TV TRPs but won't solve the problem."
Shabnam Hashmi, who had earlier also objected to Hazare's praise
for Modi, alleged that the literature distributed near Jantar
Mantar where the social reformer was on fast was anti-minority.
"One wonders if this (campaign) has been launched with an ulterior
motive. Suddenly the talk of the Sangh terror network has
disappeared."
In a joint press statement issued later, they noted that there was
nothing that the Lokpal would bring to bear in the form of greater
sense of transparency and accountability in the system "than what
the existing institutions have achieved or not achieved".
"For that, a necessary condition is the creation of a social
consciousness which would decisively disapprove and reject the
culture of favouritism and nepotism."
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