Anna Hazare vs. the government - The ?hit hits the roof!

Anna Hazare vs. the government - The ?hit hits the roof!

Considering the importance of the subject matter, I've been making more posts on this topic than I normally do on most other topics. My earlier posts, in chronological order, for those who missed the bus:

Moral Peril in Supporting Anna Hazare - The title is self-explanatory.

Burning issue - The Lok Pal Bill - A strong criticism of Anna Hazare's act of burning the Government's draft of the Lok Pal bill.

1. CAG Report Leakage - In this post, I question the leakage of the CAG report on CWG and, as a corollary, the questionable practices of the media in procuring such confidential reports even before they are presented to the original and legal destination, viz., the Parliament.

2. Anna Hazare, No Blackmail Please! - The title is self-explanatory

As the date of the Fast - Part II comes closer, the whole issue is becoming a huge farce and tragedy roled into one. And the theatre of the absurd is being telecast live by all our TV channels. TRP ratings are rumoured to be far ahead of our cricket matches. And only partly because of our cricket team's poor performance.

If I've been harping on Anna Hazare's methods being a case of "hitting below the belt", the Government is proving itself to be a tough competitor - As any lousy movie in any of the Indian languages about bad politicians would normally do, the Government has started throwing a lot of muck at Team Anna.

Some simple questions arise:

• Why did the government suddenly realise about all this muck about Anna's birthday bash, Kiran Bedi - Lehman connection, etc.?
• If the government knew about it all much earlier, why did they keep quiet all along?
• Have cases been registered against the concerned "civil society members"? If so, when and why has there been no publicity? If not, why not?
• The other political parties, (especially the BJP) are enjoying themselves at the predicament of the UPA. Why did they not pass a strong Lok Pal bill in all those years when NDA was ruling the nation?
• Are the other parties supporting the methods adopted by Team Anna? If so, those parties must be violating half-a-dozen acts pertaining to insulting the Parliament, denigrating the political class, questioning the judiciary, etc. Why have cases not been filed for such violations?
• The government is claiming that "Police have not given permission for Anna's fast - what can we do?" - If the Police is so independent, there's probably no need for a Lok Pal! Let them tell that story to some kindergarten children.

Obviously, there's a lot of competitive mud-slinging going on, and the mess is becoming murkier all the while.

There are no easy solutions. However, I still maintain that Parliament is supreme and should have the last word when it comes to drafting and approving legislation of any kind.

Watch this space for more.

Regards,

N

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