Citizen

The whole drama about reservations for Muslims and its politics – primarily in Uttar Pradesh

For the past few days, in addition to the many caste calculations going on in the UP electoral scene, there is another twist that has been added to the whole discourse. This is related to political parties trying to attract the Muslim vote and what they can do for it. Now, getting support from a community is not a problem, but doing it only for electoral purposes and at the time of elections continues to be a problem, especially when it is so blatant.
A series of reports over the years have concluded that Indian muslims over the years have a level of development which is lower than that of the general population, and nobody can really doubt these conclusions. Further, over the years, a number of trades that had traditionally a higher proportion of Muslims (such as weavers) were affected by economic movements, further reducing the economic growth of the community. These were items that the Governments of the day should have handled, with targeted economic and development measures that laid a lot of emphasis on economic development that would increase the empowerment level of Muslims in the country.
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What exactly is happening in the case of the Jan Lokapal Bill ?

Ever since August, when Anna launched his fast, which was such a huge success in terms of getting the Government to move from not contemplating any changes in the Government version of the Lokpal bill, to a state where Parliament had accepted most of the propositions of Anna (without actually committing to the Bill). The Government was desperate to get the fast ended, and decided to postpone the eventuality by sending the various versions of the Bill to the Standing Committee of Parliament, which in turn would talk to most of the people involved and then finally work out a version of the Bill, which would be sent back to Parliament. For this, the Government had committed in writing to Anna that they would do this in the winter session of Parliament, which is due to start pretty soon.
In the meantime, the Government started its usual smear campaign against the various members of Anna’s team, coupled with some dodgy actions of the team, and also some practices that were more controversial. So, you had Kiran Bedi getting money for her NGO by charging various organizers of events full business fare, and actually going by economy (but the full exposure of this must have gladdened the heart of the Congress side); then you had the discredited Swami Agnivesh creeping out of his hole to allege that money collected during the entire fast was actually taken to Arvind Kejriwal’s NGO (later stated that this was by design, and with full audits revealed of the collection); and Prashant Bhushan making statements of plebiscite in Kashmir, something that does not sit well with the middle class, and did not sit well with Anna. However, if the argument is that only those who have not done anything wrong can campaign against corruption, then we might as well give up and let the corrupt (of the thousands of crores as well) get what they want.
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The Anna protest causing the Congress to respond with confusion. What next ?

I am right now watching TV, and there is this huge demonstration ongoing at India Gate, with people gathered there in large numbers. These are people demonstrating in favor of Anna Hazare, but in actuality, they are protesting against corruption that is widespread right now. It is not the huge amounts of corruption that is being seen in mega scams such as the 2G scam, the amounts spent in the CWG planning, and many others, but the amount of money that a person needs to spend for even regular activities such as their interaction with the local municipal authorities. An apt example of this is the description of a person having to spend money for getting the registration of their baby, for registration of their marriage, for education, for their passport, driving license, all the way to having to pay money to get the death certificate for their relatives. The feeling of helplessness that comes due to these interactions is incredible, and when you see a person promising some sort of hope, you can expect people flocking to such a hope. And when this hope comes in the form of Anna Hazare, a former soldier who has a high reputation for integrity, simplicity, and who has taken on politicians in the past, you have a recipe that could literally shake the Government.
The Government has tried several measures to try and control the situation. It has tried to stain the reputation of Anna Hazare and his men, it has claimed that any such experiments with the usage of civil society in drafting bills is a failure, it has claimed that the Government is indeed dedicated to defeating corruption, it has claimed that once the law is before Parliament, then others should not have the need to raise such protests, and of course, it claims that what Anna Hazare is doing is contempt of democracy, since Parliament is the center of the representatives of the people. Let me try and take these one by one.
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