Anna, please come back. Please...

Let me be candid. I am in no position to advise Anna Hazare on how to motivate the masses; how to grab eyeballs and eardrums; how to sell the idea of a squeaky clean India; and when to call it quits. But having seen millions of eyeballs sucked in by TV in April 2011, I wonder why his retinal share slipped and blipped. All biggies have had their retinal dips; Sunil Gavaskar had his dim moments in 1983, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has seen them in 2011/12, Charlie Sheen hiccuped a few months ago.But, then, the best reinvent themselves, opt for version 3.0, or go to the roots.
Infy is looking at 3.0. Perhaps Anna could have recoded himself as Anna 3.0. But the ship has since sailed, and India's civil society is wrecked. Now, if Anna wants to revive the civil society movement (CSM) in India, he may like to consider a few things as he ponders the decline and fall of Team Anna.
1. Beam Anna: 2011 was the year of Beam Anna, when a soldier-turned-crusader took urban India by storm. Beam Anna was a ray of continuous hope. Team Anna was a collective effort with a hip-broad message and too many tunes. Beam Anna had a single sharp message; Team Anna was collective confusion. The advice for Anna: Be one in the field of one. Be one on the screens too. We want you. We don't want them. We welcome beam spirit. We dislike team spirit. Come back and lead us, Anna. Forget 3.0. Get to the roots.
2. Invoke MKG: There's absolutely no doubt that every leader with a mass aspiration must model himself on Gandhian values. Even future evangelists. If civil society rallied behind Anna, it was largely because he seemed to be cruising along the Gandhian path and upholding Gandhian values. But Anna needs to go beyond that; he needs to go to the cities, the suburbs and the villages to spread the message of Gandhi. It will be a wake-up call for an India that is losing confidence in itself. It will also be a wake-up call for a civil society that is losing purpose.
As Gandhi said: "Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning." Anna should return as a teacher, not a leader. He should take Gandhi into the hearts and minds of New India. It will create a new civil society that believes in rebuilding India. It will unite India's villages and cities with a single message of hope and faith. CSM's biggest challenge: Re-educating India, not browbeating politics.
3. Deconstruct civil society: Even as Anna peacefully heads for the drawing board in Ralegan Siddhi, he can perhaps set the rules for civil society and its diverse members. What, exactly, is the civil society movement (CSM)? Is CSM a bunch of techies that have suddenly found an intellectual distraction? Is CSM a society of NRI returnees who are trying to impress one another with ideas? Is CSM a gaggle of GenY-ers trying to size up, and end, corruption? Is CSM a fashion statement? Has CSM any role to play in a democracy? How does CSM understand its limitations and recalibrate its goals? Is CSM an offshoot of democracy? Is CSM a mass movement or is it a spontaneous reaction to situations? Is the Occupy Movement a CSM? Is the Arab Spring a CSM?
If Anna does wish to return to the epicentre of the CSM —I hope he does — it's time he sets the ground rules for CSM and defines its purpose within the ambit of democracy. Else, once gain, we will have a soap opera which could not last beyond Season 1.
Anna has nothing to lose. Despite its age, civil society is still impressionable.