The GOI constituted a Lokpal Bill [JLPB] Drafting Committee that consists of civil society members nominated by Anna Hazare and only Congress Ministers. They declined to nominate any opposition party members nor did they include any ally in government or outside.
The significance at first escaped my attention, till DNA carried an article that pointedly mentioned that even allies were excluded. For a party that has repeatedly driven home the “compulsions of coalition politics”, why did they exclude allies, let alone the opposition?
The Congress isn’t a new kid on the political block. It is the oldest one! And such a move would have been well calculated. Consider this:
· Everyone acknowledges that fighting corruption is the #1 political & mass issue in India today
· Everyone feels the politicians & election funding are the single largest source of corruption
· Everyone is fed up of the rank failure of the Congress (and it’s UPA) in tackling corruption.
· Everyone believes the Congress is at the centre of the whole problem.
· Everyone gives the Congress absolutely no chance of winning in 2014. A friend even said they’ll even never ever win again.
· Everyone feels the BJP has also failed as an opposition.
Under these circumstances, everyone agrees that only a miracle will save the Congress. Well, one is round the corner!
Since it is the butt end of jokes, everyone also thinks (like I almost always did!) that the Congress is now a bunch of idiots who have no capacity to think let alone think strategically. The Congress is seen as arrogant, opaque and tyrannical. Thus their obituary is being written on front pages and OpEds every day.
STOP, to think.
The congress’s apparent volte face on inclusion of the PM and CJI and lower bureaucracy in the purview of the JLPB is pure strategy.
They hope to garner support of all political parties when the bill is placed before parliament, since the political class does not want a strong JLPB. How can I say that? The JLPB has not materialized since a decade and a half. If any party wanted to bring it forth, everyone had their chance.
When the bill gets all parties committed to watering it down, the Congress will have yet another change of heart, another volte face, this time by the leader of leaders, Sonia or Rahul Gandhi, and it will bring a bill that meets and perhaps exceed the expectations of all people.
Then one of two things can happen:
1. The bill may get through parliament because publicly opposing it would mean political oblivion. In such an event, the Congress re-emerges as the People’s Champion, after RTI. It regains its political supremacy.
2. The GOI falls due to opposition. Snap elections on this ONE issue will give it 2/3rd majority it will demand for amending the constitution to fight corruption.
The third option of a watered down version is a no-win for all parties. Makes no sense for the Congress.
Either way, the Lokpal Bill may well turn out to be the Congress’s miracle failsafe.
Unless the opposition, as also all other political parties get on the JLPB wagin before the congress does, they may start writing off 2014 (or earlier) and conceding to the Congress!
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The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. – Marcel Proust