UPA-II and Police Attack at Ramlila Maidan

The past-midnight police attack on Baba Ramdev’s supporters at the Capital’s Ramlila Maidan on June 4-5 and its consequences are still being discussed among wide sections of the public, horrified as the people are by the wanton assault on thousands of peaceful agitationists backing the yoga-guru’s campaign against black money, the ostensible reason for his indefinite fast to force the recalcitrant government take urgent steps to bring back such unaccounted wealth stashed away abroad. Since then the ruling dispensation at the Centre in general, and the Congress party in particular, has launched a publicity drive to expose the Baba’s links with the RSS/BJP set-up (witness the full endorsement of the views of Sadhvi Rithambhara of the Babri Masjid demolition fame by the yoga-guru during her speech from the podium he shared with her) that are nothing new and happen to be well known. Now bizarre theories are being trotted out, based on so-called intelligence inputs (without any shred of substantive proof), that there being a direct threat to Ramdev’s life, the police operation was aimed at rescuing him! One would not be off-the-mark to conclude that these are all afterthoughts to justify the police action which has completely alienated the UPA-II from large sections of the populace as it revealed its real face in all its ugliness.

The issue is neither Baba Ramdev nor Anna Hazare who earlier sat on fast-unto-death at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi demanding an effective Lokpal Bill. The issue is black money in the case of Ramdev and Lokpal Bill in Hazare’s case—both intended to launch a frontal operation against corruption. The unearthing of mega scams, one after another, under UPA-II shocked public conscience to such an extent that the common citizens spontaneously flocked to the venue of Hazare’s fast while people across the country joined in the protest in exceptionally large numbers. Ramdev’s was, of course, a far more organised show with much less spontaneity but the sheer numbers at the Ramlila Maidan testified to the intense public urge to organise a concerted movement against corruption. Both these had doubtless unnerved that powers that be; hence the decision to include Anna Hazare and his associates in the panel set up to draft the Lokpal Bill and the move to hold parleys with Ramdev so as to convey to the world that the government was serious in combating the menace of black money (although the Ministers’ body language failed to communicate that). There was also an element of mischief at work: to drive a wedge among civil society activists by placating Ramdev in order to isolate Hazare—an attempt that in the end boomeranged to the government’s discomfiture. Thus the initial step to lay the red carpet when the Baba arrived in New Delhi in his private jet with four Ministers rushing to the airport to receive him.

The parleys with Ramdev (that were held both at the airport and thereafter at a posh hotel in the Capital) initially appeared to be going well. But once the talks seemed to be leading nowhere the government decided to change course midstream—and the carrot was abandoned to opt for the stick. Such an abrupt change is hardly expected from astute politicians but then there isn’t any really experienced political figure in the Union Cabinet (even Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is known more as a political manager of sorts). Hence the order for police action at midnight (in the true style of corporate CEOs) without any calculation of the political cost of such a misadventure. And that has resulted in the present mess. It is no exaggeration to say that the government now has egg on its face as a consequence of the police operation due to which at least two persons are in the ICUs of hospitals with one of them, a 53-year-old woman, facing the possibility of being paralysed for life on account of the lathi blows she received from the the so-called guardians of law and order. According to latest information, she is learnt to be sinking.

There is no point blaming Ramdev and his associates (of course the yoga-guru too did not crown himself with glory as he sought to flee from the Ramlila Maidan dressed up as a woman before he was nabbed by the police: and his subsequent call to arms was not just impolitic but infantile as well). But the fact is that the ham-handed police action has resulted in mass alienation from the authorities and as of now it is doubtful if the government would be able to recover lost ground in the near future. However, Ministers like Kapil Sibal are completely blind to this reality while there is none in the Congress leadership to intervene. As for the PM, his adoption of sphinx-like silence is further complicating matters.

The tragedy is that in the highest echelons of power lack of vision is compounded by the total inability to comprehend the ground situation to the detriment of national interest.

June 9 S.C.