Lessons from Anna Hazare's movement

Tarun Nongthombam *

Two crusaders : Anna Hazare and Irom Sharmila - Pix: :: TSE

Anna Hazare's Jan Lokpal anti-corruption movement was a success. Even Anna was surprised by the size of crowd that turned up at RamLila Maidan in Delhi for the cause. Support among the intelligentsia was visible from the beginning when they started comparing with JayaPrakash Narayan (JP) movement, which was then the only movement with pan Indian appeal after independence. So what were the things that worked in favor of the movement and what went right? Let us see few of them.

Pied piper of Hamelin effect: - It is rather easy to gain people's support in demanding statehood or increase in reservation quota. We have all either taken or given bribe at some point and have regarded this as a part of life, it wasn't easy to start an anti corruption movement. You needed someone who is free from corruption and who people can look up to, like what many say, "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion". Anna Hazare fits perfectly in that and he was the Pied piper of the movement.

Expert Team: - Anna Hazare himself is a seasoned social activist who has successfully led many movements in the past. What surprised me was Arvind Kejriwal, he had an answer to every question thrown to him. You get that mastery when you work for years in a field and have fought many battles before the big war. Kiran Bedi was good in hard talk and crowd handling. Two Bhushans and Hedge were there to fend the movement against political and legal attack by the adversaries.

Goals above all: - The core committee of Anna's team didn't even wink a bit to sideline Swami Agnivesh when his activities became suspicious. In a movement where many players are involved, you are bound to have people with hidden agendas, people who are willing to use the movement for personal gains. You get people support when you set goals above the team members who are involved in the movement. Baba Ramdev's weak points were common people became suspicious of his political linkage and he was projecting himself more important than the goal.

Innovating:- In order to sustain a movement, it is very necessary to keep innovating. If we start realizing that present strategy is becoming directionless and losing steam it is important to think new. Anna had the ideas of gheraos and singing bhazans in MPs houses to Jail bharos. We have to innovate to keep people and media interested in the movement. This is what people campaigning against AFSPA should take notice of.

Know your opponents:- Team Anna knew exactly whom they were dealing with. Anna was severely criticized for appointing two Bhushans in his team. Their defense was that they require people who know nuts and bolts of the Jan Lokpal to explain to the government. Senior Bhuhsan worked as a law minister during the Morarji Desai government, he knows how ministers and government ministry functions and junior Bhushan is an eminent lawyer. Now, we all know, Anna was proved so right by keeping the two Bhushans in his team.

Team Anna even went ahead and conducted polls in Kapil Sibal constituency to prove that he was not in tune with his people at his constituency by criticizing the movement. Arvind Kejriwal did not shy away from waving a copy of a newspaper, which published article against the movement. It was a big negative publicity for the newspaper in front of thousands of people at the RamLila ground and millions watching television.

Nobody cares what happens in the sticks: -This is sad but true and Anna realizes this, so he started his movement in New Delhi. Forget Manipur, many Mumbai citizens have criticized Delhi based media for being Delhi centric and not giving enough time to Mumbai's law and order and civic problems.

Increase your friends: - Team Anna went on meeting spree with many political parties and explaining Jan Lokpal and the movement. In doing so, they were not only increasing their friends but also their understanding of other side's reservations. If you feel and work for removing AFSPA, you go and explain to the people who don't understand AFSPA. You don't wait for people to come to you.

Knowing when to end:- Every movement has to end; it can't be endless. The trick lies in knowing how long people can go further and realizing that government is not going to give in to every demand. Anna Hazare ended many of his fast in past without getting the full demand.

India is all talk and no decision: - This is true not only in our dealing with other countries but also true in internal affairs. People campaigning for telengana have criticized central government for taking no stand and sitting on the issue for years. It is good to have consensus but with so many political parties and pressure groups you are not going to have consensus in India. Someone has to take the call and that someone is the prime minister of India.

If you go by the media reports, it was the prime minister who put his foot down and agreed to the sense of both houses of parliament, thus putting an end to the Anna's movement. Ministers who were against, tried to scuttle the movement till the last minute and even disagreeing to the sense of the house and the wording of it.

We all know that it is the defence ministry, which is dead against any changes in AFSPA. Even Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah has said openly said that the views of home ministry on AFSPA are accommodative but defence ministry views have saddened him. You are not going to have any decision in India when powerful ministry like defence is against any changes in AFSPA.

So, people working for changes in AFSPA have two ways: - Either make defence ministry realize that their views are anti people and make them agree to the changes in AFSPA or make prime minister to take a stand. We can keep on yelling from the roof top about human right violations but very little has happened in the last 10 years and don't see happening much in the near future.

Engaging media: - Where JP outscored Anna was, JP mobilized the movement without the 24-hour media. We can broadly classified media coverage into two types, one is that, they run as a developing story and constantly follows the issue and telecast 24x7, Anna Hazare movement falls in this category. It exercised so much pressure that MPs like Lalu and Sharad Yadav criticized media during Lokpal debate in parliament for giving them sleepless night.

Second one is, media running few documentaries and chat shows. It helps in educating people but will add very little to the movement. Few years ago AFSPA did not even fall into this second category.

Lately, you can see few chat shows on AFSPA. As far as Delhi media is concerned AFSPA is grouped with dowry deaths, road flooding during monsoon. This is what they have on chat shows! But, why is this inclusion of AFSPA on chat shows, of late?

Few days ago one English Channel started showing on the NH-39 blockade and next day you have other channel focusing on Blockade and AFSPA. One should realize that there is stiff competition among the media houses for TRP. We should know how to play our game in this. Support the media house, which shows issues about your state.

In N.E, English news media penetration is deep; media houses will realize this eventually. It is not like in mainland where it is limited to the upper middle class in big cities. Do you think people in small town and villages in UP and Bihar prefer English news? Forget English Channel, they don't even like bollywood channels, saying, it is alien to them. Then, what do they watch? They watch Mahuaa channel where they have Manoj Tiwari talking to them in their dialect!

I had a colleague from U.K who takes medicines manufactured by GLAXO and drives only cars manufactured by Nissan. He had an interesting answer when I asked the reason. He said GLAXO is the company where his brother works and Nissan even though Japanese employs lot of British workers.

Develop interest in firms and organizations that looks after your state interest and support them. Even a simple thank you from your face book account for the article or coverage of your state helps. Media people are humans and like being pampered and appreciated. In e-pao.net you will find many articles where the comment box is empty or not even the liked button clinked once. One can be sure that the author will not write on the same topic again!

We are yet to get respect from center and other states in India. You don't get respect when you depend everything on central funding and you have nothing to show as your own. Do you know that if you are asked to build National Highways 39 and 53 by the book, you will build one side like our plain leikai roads and other side strongly like a National Highway?

This is because all the trucks that go out from the state are empty and all the trucks that come inside the state are loaded! This shows the magnitude of our state dependence and we have nothing to sell to others. We might like center to take Manipur and its issues seriously as they do to bigger states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu or U.P. but center attitude has always been "beggars cannot be choosers! "