Sacking of Bhushan by AAP is a Blessing in Disguise

Captain GR Gopinath in Captain's Musings

inTimes of India,  April 2, 2015

  (The moment you enter dirty politics to clean it up, politics mill make you dirtier than you ever were. AAP is a shining example, says the writer. History is full of revolutionaries who overthrew despots only to become worse tyrants – think of French, Soviet, Spanish, Chinese, Communist revolutions. All party leaders are ‘Empire Builders’. “An Empire is an immense egotism.” said Emerson, now watch  Kejriwal, once acclaimed iconic democratic, transparent leader. James Kottoor)

The country will benefit if Bhushan stays outside politics and continues his fight against the ills of politics. 

If all political parties are now on the same side, then who will keep them in check? The country needs apolitical and courageous crusaders like Anna Hazare to keep the political parties and the government on watch and hold them accountable.

It is now amply evident, that even the best of them when they join politics, metamorphose into ‘political animals’. They join to change the system, but instead the system changes them. Not only the survival instinct takes over, it turns them into cunning and ruthless predators to avoid becoming a prey themselves. Often the revolutionaries who overthrew despotic emperors with ideals of equality,fraternity and social justice became worse tyrants than the Kings and despots they deposed – the French and the Soviet Revolutions, and later the Spanish Civil War, the Chinese Communist revolution and peasant march led by Mao are a few examples). In India too almost all the regional parties originally led by rebels to bring about a just social order, are now controlled by individual leaders or their dynasty, with megalomaniacal egos. “An Empire is an immense egotism.” said Emerson. And we see that all party leaders are ‘Empire Builders’.

The larger National parties have no inner party democracy and are plagued by High Command culture to a greater or lesser degree. Arvind Kejriwal the iconic leader who changed the very nature of Indian politics, consumed by the flame of idealism, has now gone the way of other parties and surprisingly and sadly, too soon. The traditional political parties are having the last laugh and a smug laugh.

Who will rein them in ? With Anna ageing, the country needs people like Prashant Bhushan and Medha Patkar to take over his mantle and keep the flame of the crusading spirit to take on a wayward government when it strays from the path of righteousness.

In recent times, we have had Jayaprakash Narayan who stood up to Indira Gandhi. Even though JP was aged and ill, his movement against rampant corruption galvanised the students of the country and shook the Indira Gandhi government and challenged Congress misrule. His indomitable courage and call to come out and challenge the ruling party and hold it accountable, mobilised and rallied people from all walks of life to rise against Indira Gandhi ‘s declaration of Emergency, and forced her to beat a retreat and lift the ‘Emergency’ she had declared on the nation. Anna Hazare was a beacon hope for the youth of this country who were cynical and despondent and his tireless efforts and fearless fight against high handed venal politics in the wake of scams during UPA rule inspired a whole generation and brought the Congress led UPA to its knees and helped bring about the Lokpal Bill. Anna and his team of followers put fear in politicians and political parties and raised awareness and infused a spirit of optimism among both the public and media and helped bring about a change in the nature of politics. Anna brought governance and corruption issues to centre stage of public discourse through his movement for demand of an autonomous Janlokpal.

Now who is there to challenge the political establishment ? Kejriwal has lost the moral stature and authority to challenge other political parties. In the eyes of the other political parties, he is now perceived as one of them. In the public’s mind, especially the millions of volunteers in India and around the world, (though Kejriwal at a personal level is not corrupt and is untainted in financial matters)he has lost the ‘halo’ and now no longer stands on a pedestal.

Politicians and especially the ruling parties regardless of their party affiliations, need checks and balances. A vibrant media, when not owned and controlled by big business is one such countervailing force. Fortunately the increasing power of the Internet and Social Media today can compensate for many shortcomings bound to exist in media houses because of economic compulsions as well as its own partisan interests as many are owned by corporate and business houses. A strong and independent judiciary that can stand upto the executive is another. India has one fortunately – inspite of its many weaknesses and its own ills. But judiciary tries cases only that are filed before it. Judicial activism to act ‘suo moto’ has its limits. The opposition political party is another. But everyone knows they are usually compromised. But it helps and adds up to a campaign against injustice. There are many intellectuals with integrity who can influence the government but are often ineffective when the ruling party is high handed and has its own short term agenda and political interests. Therefore a society needs in addition to the above, intrepid activists and crusaders, who fight for truth and against injustice, fearlessly take up public causes and take up issues of the under privileged and relentlessly pursue causes of liberty and human rights. In all ages, there have been great men and women, who rose to the occasion and took up cudgels on behalf of their fellowmen.

That calls for a special kind of integrity and courage and special breed of men and women.Prashant Bhushan is one such. He has already been in the forefront of public interest litigation for more than a decade much before the AAP and Anna movement, and his work in that area has had tremendous good impact on society and has on many occasions exposed the nexus between numerous guilty politicians, bureaucrats and business men and brought them to justice.

Bhushan is considering his future course of action along with Yadav and other volunteers of AAP and has called for a meeting on April 14. It may be tempting to take the fight to Kejriwal’s camp and form a new political party. Instead of making it a personal crusade against Kejriwal or AAP , Bhushan will be more effective and do a world of good if he can band together more activists and lead a constructive fight in a bipartisan, objective and dispassionate way, against all political parties (not just AAP) and against the government in power to help bring about systemic changes and good governance.

Bhushan’s activism without wearing a political hat will double the force as it will have greater credibility.