A tactical pause in the design of battle by Mr Hazare’s team.
When Mr Anna Hazare started, rather resumed, his movement on 16th of August, his team had these demands: (1) Their version of the Lok Pal Bill, called the Jan Lok Pal Bill should be passed by the parliament without any amendments; (2) The Bill should not be referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee; (3) The bill should be passed in four days or by 30th of August, depending on the version you heard.
What did the government offer to Mr Hazare? Take your version of the bill to the Standing Committee.
What was finally achieved after so much of anger, outrage and confrontation? The Parliament asked the standing committee to consider the sense of the house on the subject at the end of a day-long debate.
Many media houses and members of Mr Hazare’s team are claiming it as a victory for Mr Hazare. If it is a victory, it is a facile victory, not a substantive one. Perhaps there will be huge celebrations when Mr Hazare breaks his fast on a Sunday morning at 10 AM, absolutely at the peak of prime-time Sunday morning viewing. That fits in with the manner in which the whole movement has been organised and planned — like a reality TV show.
This is nothing more than an honourable exit for Mr Hazare’s team. While they claim victory to keep their supporters enthused, this is only a tactical pause in their design of battle. They are living to fight another day. As the bill gets debated in the standing committee, there are bound to be massive disagreements between Mr Hazare’s team and the government over each clause and sub-clause in the bill. There will be enough opportunity for them to resume their agitation at a time and place of their choosing.
Why did Mr Hazare’s team choose this path of an honourable exit now? The movement is underpinned by the round-the clock coverage of the event by news television channels. Viewer fatigue sets in for the best of the reality TV shows and with a cricket series on the horizon, it was no different in this case. Critical media voices were raising their head and asking harder questions of Mr Hazare’s team. The antics of Ms Kiran Bedi and others from the stage, along with the lumpen behaviour by self-proclaimed Anna supporters on the roads, was also diminishing the aura around the movement.
The longest fast that Mr Hazare has undertaken so far has been for 12 days and logically, he would been moved for hospitalisation in a couple of days. With their icon gone, Mr Hazare’s team would have also run out of the permission to use the Ramlila Maidan after 14 days. They couldn’t have held on to the ground as it would then delay the preparations for the forthcoming Ramlila at the venue.
In that sense, this is not the end. This is not even the beginning of the end. The can has just been kicked down the road. By both the sides. For their own reasons.
The government is happy to get the monkey off its back — even if it is only a temporary reprieve. But unless it mends its ways drastically, it is in for another shocker in a few weeks or months time. This will need political imagination, craftier media-management and the ability to set the national agenda. Going by the lacklustre performance of the UPA-2 so far, there is little reason to believe that the government will move from a default reactive mode to a proactive mode.
If it was a boxing bout, the first couple of rounds have seen some spectacular punching by Team Anna which landed the government on the ropes. But the score-sheet shows it equal with the government on points at the end of first two rounds. However, there are many more rounds to go before this bout is settled. Even if we hear the count, it is unlikely that either team will be able to land a knock-out punch in the remaining rounds.
Finally, the dominant emotion at the end of the day is a sigh of relief, not an exultation of satisfaction. Let us savour that for the moment.
At my blog, It’s a temporary reprieve: A tactical pause in the design of battle by Mr Hazare’s team. http://t.co/fNfDKAy
Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/vrtLqdi
Must read @pragmatic_d It’s a temporary reprieve: A tactical pause in the design of battle by Mr Hazare’s team. http://t.co/THqfTIv
“@pragmatic_d: It’s a temporary reprieve: A tactical pause in the design of battle by Mr Hazare’s team. http://t.co/wciEkwh”
Agree with @pragmatic_d that the latest developments on the Lokpal show are only a temporary reprieve. Read. http://t.co/eRH61nJ
#Read : What did the government offer to Mr Hazare? Was it really a victory for Team Anna? Or Just a A tactical pause http://t.co/KtwvRGH
Everything you wanted to know about today’s "battle," but were afraid to ask. RT @pragmatic_d A tactical pause… http://t.co/ESuuBu2
Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/4SWNpb6 Love the analogy of can kicked down the road.
Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/miWh4pf
Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/8QqJfuh
Pragmatic Euphony » A temporary reprieve http://t.co/uF66Ucq
A tactical pause http://t.co/LUyXxdf via @pragmatic_d
This sums it up. Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/tUEl8Vz
Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/MeK36Tm
http://t.co/sbGMVIQ In which @pragmatic_d sums up the goings-on of today as "a temporary reprieve to savour". Well put as usual
Janlokpal – Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/jA8iMmS
Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/vKk4rgH | The shape of things to come, as perceptively warned by @pragmatic_d
RECOMMENDED @pragmatic_d Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/Wq6BCF8 "If govt does not mend its ways, it is in for another shocker"
So Mr Hazare breaks his fast tmrw at 10am at prime time-great read u Team Anna supporters-> Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/a5TYvjr
Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/E7ZG7uR
Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/hFyKhhl
the dominant emotion at the end of the day is a sigh of relief, not an exultation of satisfaction – http://t.co/xW74roU – @pragmatic_d
Are you suggesting that Team Anna has more steam left in them?
Team Anna managed to give some shocks to UPA only because of the public support it received. The support in my opinion was hardly based on the merits of the arguments of Team Anna but rather people got an opportunity to show their frustration with the government.
Now that people have got rid of that frustration in rather ‘We Won’ like situation I feel it is very tough for Team Anna to make more noise. They have lived their moment.
do read @pragmatic_d on why he thinks it is a A tactical pause in the design of battle by Mr Hazare’s team. http://t.co/jEnI6Ha
@acorn Kind of disagree. That presumes a sense of reasonableness which that team doesn’t have. See my post: http://t.co/fNfDKAy @samar11
"@calamur: do read @pragmatic_d on why he thinks it is a A tactical pause in the design of battle by Mr Hazare’s team. http://t.co/z3BFksZ"
Here is the @pragmatic_d’s intake http://t.co/ddbVuVo on the current Hazare spot!
Interesting read RT @pragmatic_d on why he thinks it is a A tactical pause in the design of battle by Mr Hazare’s team. http://t.co/STx8ugR
Do read: RT @pragmatic_d It’s a temporary reprieve: A tactical pause in the design of battle by Mr Hazare’s team http://t.co/l8JrDJw
Only a temporary reprieve. Hard grind ahead. Do read post on Anna Hazare’s campaign & GOI’s reaction by @pragmatic_d http://t.co/De3XBUI
.@pragmatic_d on why he thinks it is a A tactical pause in the design of battle by Mr Hazare’s team. http://t.co/RAn8XNL
Good piece by @pragmatic_d -This is nothing more than an honourable exit for Mr Hazare’s team-Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/EcQcYGM
Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/pR1UXlC
@shekharkapur Sir pls read this..http://t.co/gCJhxmx
Anna’s team has just beaten a tactical retreat. @pragmatic_d explains why http://t.co/VONqPFi
This just sums it up… Must read by @pragmatic_d http://t.co/OQU37Tb
"The can has just been kicked down the road. By both the sides." (via @pragmatic_d) . I agree; there’s still a… http://t.co/6lLsOfK
"The can has just been kicked down the road. By both the sides." (via @pragmatic_d) . I agree; there’s still a… http://t.co/DntlR63
Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/crHZSgL – a must read
Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/b5ni351
Very eloquently put! RT @brijwhiz: Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/TWNScrj – a must read
must read by @pragmatic_d . Pragmatic Euphony Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/bMOmkp2
My sense is that the equations have changed:
The resolution conveyed “the sense of the house” and is a shadow of what was demanded.
Anna’s “handlers were sidelined. “Direct channel” talks with Anna broke the impasse.
Note how everyone started distancing themselves from Kejriwal and Bedi. Including Swami Agnivesh and Justice Hegde. They were left out of final discussions.
The Standing Committee is going to consider all versions of the proposed LPB – importantly there will be “no looking over the shoulder” and Parliamentary procedures will be followed. The positive to be taken is that Parliament has not been subverted.
Manmohan Singh began acting in corruption late last year. Aside from the politicos and senior business people in jail, the strongest signalling has been creating clear distance between the Congress and Mukesh Ambani.
The CAG has been determinedly vocal and public about malfeasance. My sense is that MMS will use the gap to which you refer to spur more concerted action, and we will see lots more public censure of specific acts, and (hopefully) a couple of very high-profile arrests.
The need for the UPA to wrest the initiative is strong, and MMS has accumulated enough arrows to do so.
Mohit has a valid point. The CAG has not been muzzled or reined-in. That is important.
nyways, take a look at temporary reprieve by @pragmatic_d http://t.co/gVir5ak
One another account of decrying about #AnnaHazare movement and cyber hooliganism http://t.co/97ABQi6
Have to agree with this — Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/i7WoMBu
@Mohit:
Thanks for the comment. I hope you are right. But as the cliché goes, the proof is in the pudding.
@SD Verma:
I have my doubts if the equations have changed. But they can change if the Pm takes some initiatives which Mohit referred to.
Completely agreed. Its just a tactical pause. The can has just been kicked down the road, by both sides- http://t.co/S6TIB4U
@shiv41 yes I m against corruption too but let’s not create one monster to destroy another. Read http://t.co/gp0TQh2 and http://t.co/OQU37Tb
The basics of negotiating tactics are lost on you folks. Anna tactics wins this round.
. http://t.co/YZqcWPL
www
Ever considered that there might be a Darth Sidious pulling the strings of the puppets in the game?
MPs serve the Parliament, Parliament is for ensuring constitution, constitution is for the people-by the people-of the people. We gave this constitution to ourselves!!
Supremacy is in this Order
People – Constitution – Parliament – MPs
Its time this is understood. And those of you who have taken this nation for a ride for soo long… watch out!! We are coming!! Soon…
If the government has any sense, it should honeytrap Kejriwal before the next round starts.
Essense I could make out of your words is “what Anna achieved is a retreat than a success”. But tactical retreat is a form of fighting strategy.
Now you also got a comment on design of fight. Yes the format of fight is not so much so elegant and exemplary from your point of view. In plural society like India every walk of life designs their own form of fight taking into consideration the kind of resources and support at disposal. This movement gained spontaneous response from people who could resonate with circumstances unleashed in front of them. But the fight never gave a mandate to go offensive against institutional establishments. And also the protests are peaceful and within the legal perview of fundamental rights. I don’t think “anger, outrage and confrontation” kind of words would qualify the description of this movement.
Now you also said that the bill can be discussed in standing committee. But the bill is sent to standing committee only on 8th day of the movement. And team Anna also changed the stance in response to announcement of standing committee. Government acted to appoint a standing committee in response to movement and I feel that would be the expectation from any elected government. Personally I respect that gesture from government.
And you also got comment on TV coverage and other unimpressive acts of team Anna. Viewership is by choice. TV channels are responsible private organizations and I hope they live by standards of broadcasting policy. It may not be reasonable to attribute any violation from TV channels to Anna’s movement. I am not forced to read this article. I read it by choice. And Kiran Bedi gave her reasoning for the outburst of anxiety. And it is her way. Personally I don’t like to choose personal allegations on anyone as an approach to convey my views on any open platform.
I do believe, as it sounds logical also, that Ramlila Maidan has a management to make arrangements for forthcoming event and same is the case for all grounds like Freedom Park etc. Delhi police supervises to do the needful.
And the point carries no relevance to Anna’s movement.
“Monkey” value of that expression speaks in itself about the stature.
Congratulations you could derive an innovative scoring mechanism. I wish you would be able to protect intellectual rights around it.
Anyway you came up with a very good account of the events unfolded in last fortnight. Irrespective of the expression it is indeed contextual and represents valuable views at your capacity.
Fair enough analysis.
Just feel that the “people” have not been factored in enough.
Did the people turn up because of the media or the did the media comply because of the people? That’s the question you must try to ponder over. Therein possibly lies the answer.
Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/25MuW0X
Only a temporary reprieve http://t.co/QoijMLK
The analysis ignores one key factor – the support of the BJP and the left of Anna’s three key demands. At the start of the agitation, they had a much more neutral stand. Given that, UPA would find it very difficult to sneak thru a bill which is substatively different from the JLP – opposition parties will go to town claiming govt is not keen on a strong LP.