Have Baba Ramdev and Team Anna
grown wiser from their past mistakes?
On 3rd June Anna
and Ramdev will be together at Jantar Mantar observing fast. All those who are
supporting them in their war against corruption are happy that their coming
together will help revive the movement, which has been in dormant stage for
quite some time. As people know very well that both Anna and Ramdev have some
strong points and hence they must be together for sake of the movement. Anna
has support base among the urban educated middle class however he doesn’t have millions of disciples and strong cadre base at all
India level like Ramdev to sustain the movement for very long. If they join
hands together for a noble cause like war against corruption, it will be a
lethal combination and it will be difficult for Govt to contend with.
However, the million dollar
question is how long will they be together? How long will they be able to check
their one-upmanship vis-à-vis each other? Initially also, they were together in
their war against corruption. However, by the accident of circumstances, when
Anna forged ahead of Ramdev and got the lead of the movement, he started
ignoring Ramdev.On the other hand, when Ramdev realized that movement had gone
out of his hand to Team Anna, he started sulking. Last year’s Ramlila Maidaan’s
fast was a calculated move by Ramdev to retrieve his position in the movement.
He tried to outcompete Anna by backroom negotiations with UPA ministers.However,
he was beguiled by UPA ministers and after that downswing of his fortunes had continued
for very long and during that period Anna was the sole leader of the movement
against corruption. However, Anna’s /Anna’s team members’ overconfidence sometimes even
bordering arrogance, their casual
remarks on sensitive issues and some costly strategic miscalculations like
organizing fast in a place like Mumbai, when Parliament was already discussing
Lokpal Bill, considerably weakened the movement.
Now, it is good that both of
them have realized their limitations and have decided to come together on one
platform for strengthening the movement against corruption. However, the moot
point is how long both of them can continue to check their ego and aspirations to be the dominant face in the movement? One can understand that after his
humiliation at Ramlila Maidaan last year by the UPA Govt, Ramdev has grown
wiser.One can also expect that being a very seasoned and experienced social
activist, even Anna has grown wiser from fiasco of his fast in Mumbai.However,
the point is, has other members of Team Anna also grown wiser and practical from their spate of recent
failures?Can some of their Team members check their ego and antipathy towards
Baba Ramdev?Can some of their team members check their tendency of
one-upmanship vis-à-vis Ramdev?If they can, it will be good for Baba Ramdev as
well as Team Anna as millions of people supporting them in their movement
against corruption are looking at them with great expectation. If both of them can’t
stay together it will be really sad and unfortunate for the movement against corruption. Anna
and Ramdev must realize that their unity is going to be their strength. If they
again try to go separate ways, Political class especially UPA and majority of
other political parties with major corruption charges against their leaders and already on look out for fissures within the movement will annihilate them/their movement against corruption?
