Midnight Drama: Political brawl continues, lessons to be learnt

A delicious irony of midnight crackdown on Baba Ramdev and his supporters is that both the “perpetrator and the victim” are reeling under its impact. While the prime minister has defended police action, even the lathi- charge, the general impression is that the action has aggravated government’s agony in stead of salvaging it. The question being asked in political circles is that why the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi were keeping mum when party’s senior leader, Digvijay Singh, was calling Ramdev a “maha thug”.

The impression one gathers after talking to politicians of different hues is that both the sides have to learn lessons from this gory episode. As for Baba, eyebrows were being raised over the manner in which huge money was being spent on arrangements at Ramlila Maidan. Not only this. Baba himself had come by a chartered plane to begin his statyagraha. Now, doubts are being expressed in some quarters over the allegations about police atrocities being leveled by Baba and his supporters. Fingers are also being raised at the anti-political stance taken by Baba.

The truth is that the sharing of his platform by known hardliners like Ritambara had led to full- throated backing of the BJP and the RSS. Again, there is enough evidence to suggest that Baba had not done his home work well. He wanted death sentence for corrupt people but already debate is on in the country over the continuance of death sentence. Ideally, taking a cue from Anna who had legal luminaries with him, Baba should have consulted some economists.

There is a lesson for the government too. Observers feel that it should have not acted in such a hurry. After the contents of Acharya Balkrishan’s letter were made public, the sting in Baba’s agitation had been diluted. His protest could have lost its steam in a day or two. By resorting to police action, the government gave it a fresh lease of life. The government also failed to realize the fact that if it had allowed Baba’s fast to continue, the Anna camp, which is now united with him, would have broken away.

The government has also to realize the fact that the role of civil society players is going to increase as one after the other scam is getting exposed and the government is not able to tackle the fallout. The result is that, the moral outrage against the government is growing fast.