ANNA HAZARE STEALS OPPOSITION BJP'S THUNDER - Ghulam Muhammed | Hazare's win is Opposition's loss By Anita Saluja

ANNA HAZARE STEALS OPPOSITION BJP'S THUNDER AND ROBS BJP'S LEVERAGE TO SETTLE WITH CONGRESS ON THE SLY!!!
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai

------------------------------------------------------

http://expressbuzz.com/nation/hazare%E2%80%99s-win-is-opposition%E2%80%99s-loss/264538.html

EXPRESSBUZ.COM

Hazare’s win is Opposition’s loss

Anita Saluja

First Published :

11 Apr 2011 02:43:42 AM IST

Last Updated :

NEW DELHI: Even as the Congress-led UPA government is trying to turn its defeat into victory after conceding the demands of social activist Anna Hazare, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promising that the Lok Pal Bill would be brought in the monsoon session of Parliament, it is the BJP-led Opposition that is shell-shocked.

The BJP-led the campaign against corruption on CWG, Adarsh Housing and 2G spectrum scams and forced the ouster of A Raja from the Union Cabinet, besides compelling the government to concede its demand for JPC. But this time round, it is Anna Hazare, who has hijacked the graft issue from them. Ironically, at the time when the BJP has announced an agitational programme against corruption from April 6 to June 15, staging nationwide rallies, it is Anna Hazare and his band of supporters, who walked-away with the credit.

While the government has buckled under pressure, the image of the Opposition has also taken a beating. What the Opposition could not achieve, the NGOs have accomplished, with the support of the media and the upsurge of the people.

“Hazare has been the catalyst of the campaign against corruption. He has supplemented our cause in a successful way,” remarked BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy. When asked whether Hazare can be another Jai Prakash Narayan to become the rallying point for the Opposition to launch another agitational movement, Rudy was unsure. “He has refused to be political,” he remarked. The Opposition, during the entire episode, was keeping a watch on the developments on the Anna Hazare front, with leaders like Uma Bharati appealing to him to allow political leaders with clean image to associate with the movement.

It is Anna Hazare and his band of social activists, who will now be known as crusaders against corruption, rather than the Opposition, which, on earlier occasions like JP Movement and during Bofors campaign led by V P Singh, had taken the lead to topple the Congress governments, during 1970s and late 1980s.

In fact, the Opposition, including the BJP and the JD (U), failed to take the initiative when Hazare’s representatives knocked at their doors. The NDA top-brass that included NDA working chairman L K Advani, NDA convener Sharad Yadav and Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj were approached on the Jan Lok Pal Bill.

At the meeting on February 10, Advani was very appreciative of the Bill and said that he would definitely take up this matter within the party. During their meeting on February 5, Sharad Yadav said that he would study the Jan Lok Pal Bill and revert. Similarly, when Sushma Swaraj was approached, she was very forthcoming and assured them that the party would explore the possibility of implementing it in the states in which BJP is in power. The BJP, she indicated, may also discuss Jan Lok Pal Bill in JPC and in Parliament. However, the BJP failed to raise the issue at all during the just-concluded Budget Session of Parliament, missing out an opportunity.

In fact, a senior NDA leader had his reservations over including Prime Minister in the ambit of Lok Pal. Prime Minister is a high institution that needs to be safeguarded. Otherwise, it would become vulnerable and open to vexatious litigation, he argued. He admitted that Jan Lok Pal Bill has some good features, which could be incorporated and he agreed on the need for an autonomous institution, just like the Supreme Court and the Election Commission.

With Hazare emerging victorious, the Opposition is left with little option but to hail him. The Lok Pal Bill has a history of 42 years. For the first time, it was presented during the Fourth Lok Sabha in 1968 and passed in 1969. However, with the dissolution of Lok Sabha, the Bill died a natural death. Again, it was revived in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and 2008. The Lok Pal Bill, 2010, is pending with Select Committee.

Credit for bringing focus back on the Lok Pal Bill goes to Hazare, instead of the Opposition.

With Hazare succeeding to make the govt bow down to his demand, the Opposition, which was earlier hoping to encash the issue, is perplexed, not knowing how to react to the agreement reached out between the civil society and the government. They can only congratulate Anna Hazare.