Now the team has split and a splinter organisation, led by Anna’s deputy Kejriwal, has also come into being. Anna claims that their goal is the same but the means are different. It is a million dollar question whether Kejriwal’s new party, which is yet to be born, would make a dent in the political system or Anna’s truncated team would achieve the goal. Don’t they know that union is strength?

Will these social activists be able to sustain their movement on a single issue of corruption or tire out the public, which is disappointed with the movement?

There is no doubt that the Anna movement had lost its steam soon after the 2011 August fast at the Ramlila grounds. The Lokpal agitation attracted crowds and celebrity endorsements at the Ramlila grounds in August 2011. His anti-corruption movement had galvanised the nation favouring probity in public life. There was a ray of hope, but…

Anna was the first to express his concern that politics had divided the group that stood united for two years against the attempts of the UPA government to split it. Anna was unable to get the same kind of enthusiastic crowds even in his home state Maharashtra. He soon realized that it takes a lot to sustain the movement and the media attention.

Hazare and Kejriwal parted ways on September 19, 2012, over the issue of the anti-corruption movement taking a plunge into politics. There are sound arguments for both positions. Hazare was against the formation or support for any political party ever since the inception of the Anna Team. He thinks politics cannot deliver a better future for people and believes that forming a party is important to give an alternative to people.

But, now the movement got divided with Kejriwal deciding to form a separate political party.

After the split, Hazare has now announced the 15-member Coordination Committee, which has erstwhile members like Justice (Retd) Santosh Hegde, Akhil Gogoi and Arvind Gaur, besides Kiran Bedi and Medha Patkar. Will this truncated group be as effective?

Anna has also setup his office in Delhi realising that having a presence in Delhi is quite essential. What he now needs is good communicators and continued media support. Anna has to be explicit about his goals and what he wants to achieve to root out corruption. Anna too has to exhibit he has not lost his lure to the middle class. In fact, if elections were to be held ahead of 2014 as Hazare demands, his movement is not ready to face it.

Kejriwal, too, has setup office in Delhi for his yet to be born party. A more politically aware Kejriwal is aiming to make his presence felt in Delhi by resorting to sensational revelations. His new party would also fight elections in Delhi and the next Lok Sabha polls. Will he succeed? First of all, Kejriwal is yet to spell out the ideology of his party. Is it right or left or left of the centre no one knows. What is his vision for the country? What are his views on several economic issues and foreign policy? Will he be able to mobilise gross root support? In any case his party should better be more appealing than the existing political parties for him to succeed. It is easy to dismantle a system but difficult to build another.

Secondly, his theatrics of hitting all around is not going to help him in future, as he will be left with no friends. If he wants to fight the system he needs help from all like Jayapraksh Narayan used even the RSS. He has made enemies of various political parties, big corporate daddies, and even judiciary. Will he be able to sustain his fight against the mighty political parties and the government and the corporate daddies and build a new system? Having taken on the mightiest in the political and corporate worlds, Kerjiwal now has to prove his credibility by winning impressively in the next elections.

Thirdly, Anna also thinks that Kejriwal should not hit all around and instead take each of his allegations to its logical conclusion. Where will he get funds to fight the corrupt electoral system? Will he stay away from black money to run his party? How will he lure good candidates to enter electoral battle? Above all he runs the risk of losing steam before the next Delhi and Lok Sabha polls. More than corruption, it is price rise, which is affecting the common man today, and neither Anna nor Kejriwal are talking about it. What is significant is that they are throwing stones in the sludge and they should be prepared to face the consequences. They have renewed the hope of corruption-free politics, which would aim at changing the system.

It is too early to count out Hazare and Kejriwal, who are playing a high stake game or count them in. There could still be room for the civil society movement outside the government and political parties. Will Anna and Kejriwal be able to fill this vacuum when they are divided?(IPA Service)