The revolution will be televised

So, is Anna Hazare's crusade against corruption the start of India's peacock revolution? Jantar Mantar may not be Tahrir Square, but surely the professionals, T-shirted younsters and angry housewives erupting in mass protests simultaneously across India's metros have something in common with their compatriots elsewhere in Asia and Africa. They are faces of a civil society that's growing increasingly assertive against government and a compromised political class.Acting as a relay andmirror for such civil society protest has been a range of new media - fromwall-to-wall television news coverage to text messages, Facebook and Twitter.The proliferation of media allows new networks of social solidarity to emerge,flowing outside the established channels of political patronage. In India theyare giving voice to the country's growing middle class, increasingly alienatedfrom styles of governance that do not meet theiraspirations.Whatever might be the rights and wrongs of Hazare's campaign against corruption, the public response his campaign aroused within the space of a week is unprecedented. More than anything else, the snowballing public response to the anti-corruption campaign forced the government to capitulate quickly to its demands. It also gave the lie to accusations about the middle class's political apathy. Such accusations are usually made in the context of poor voter turnout in middle class areas during elections. But then, as the current season of corruption attests, the political class pays little attention to the middle class's priorities either.Given the globalcirculation of media images, comparisons between Jantar Mantar and Tahrir Squareare facile but inevitable. More to the point, however, is that India is nolonger the insular country it once was. Its citizens are increasingly exposed toglobal lifestyles and standards of governance. Chinese authorities may beexercised by their citizens being exposed to global influences, but India won'tbe left untouched either.The current season of corruption startedwith the Commonwealth Games, where citizens couldn't help noticing the contrastbetween the shambolic and corruption-ridden games held in Delhi with the superbshow put up by Beijing at the Olympics it hosted a couple of yearsearlier.The middle class feels embattled in a situation where asmany as 75 members of the current Lok Sabha are accused of serious crimes while,as a recent study has shown, someone charged with a serious crime has twice thevictory rate in a Lok Sabha election compared to other candidates. As AnnaHazare said in response to the question why he didn't participate in anelection, he would lose his deposit if he did so.While Hazare'sintentions of tackling corruption are unimpeachable, there is reason to doubt ifthe alternate Jan Lokpal Bill his followers propose will deliver the goods.Giving sweeping powers to a Lokpal could equally be a recipe for corruption -what if the Lokpal itself is corrupt? Even worse, what if it consists of honestzealots who exceed their brief and harass anybody who doesn't agree with theirideas? The figure of the all-powerful Lokpal appeals to the middleclass nostalgia for a 'strong' man or men of superior virtue, who will overseeand impose order on the rest of the nation through the unchecked powers grantedto them.The shape of things to come may be indicated by the inclusion of Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan, a father-son duo, among the five civil society members of the joint panel to draft the Lokpal Bill. Is civil society so strapped for talent that of five members it can nominate to draft a critical law, two must be father and son? In that case the movement has acceded to the same principle it routinely accuses the political class of: the principle of dynasty.Clearly, both conservative and expansive sides of theIndian middle class are in play in the anti-corruption movement. But glitchesaside, it has at least moved the debate beyond the sterile issue of whether thePublic Accounts Committee or a joint parliamentary committee is best placed toprobe corruption. Despite all the storm and fury in Parliament over corruption,the opposition hardly bothered to point out the infirmities of the officialversion of the Lokpal Bill that the government was placing before Parliament.Bureaucrats and government officers would be outside the purview of the Lokpal,while to initiate actions against MPs it would need to get the permission of theLok Sabha Speaker or Rajya Sabha chairman. Even if charges are proved to itssatisfaction, it can merely be a recommendatory body.Hopefully,between the toothless version of the Lokpal Bill that the government proposesand the draconian version that civil society activists propose, a reasonablecompromise will be worked out. But that in itself will not resolve the issue ofcorruption. Police and judicial reforms are a must. Rent-seeking powers in thehands of government are the source of much corruption, and economic reforms areneeded to reduce or eliminate these. We need to switch from a patronage toan empowerment model of governance. And then people themselves will vote tothrow corrupt politicians out. That, indeed, would be arevolution.