All hands on deck, but all at sea

It's been worse than a comedy of errors. The midnight swoop at Ramlila Maidan was construed to be a resounding success administratively. The high-handed action may have invited widespread criticism but the government had achieved its goal. Ramdev was forced to leap from the rostrum and make a ridiculous effort to flee the spot in a borrowed salwar-kameez. That gave UPA-II the false confidence that authoritarian tactics sometimes do pay off in a democracy.
That swift victory — the yoga guru's attempt to make an inglorious exit obviously could not win him much public sympathy — at the Ramlila grounds also gave the UPA think tank the bright idea that they could arrest Anna Hazare and that his support base would automatically melt away. But wishes seldom gallop away like wild horses. From Tihar jail, Anna ruled. Surrounded by grovelling jailors, Anna called the shots. He was not going anywhere till he had his way. The Jan Lokpal bill must become a reality. The UPA-II was helplessly stranded ; its feet sinking into a quagmire of its own making.
Strange have been the tactics of the beleaguered government from the beginning of the anti-corruption movement. It was completely taken aback by the growing popularity of the Anna phenomenon during the first episode of the Jan Lokpal struggle earlier this year. After a degree of surrender to Team Anna, when it acquiesced and allowed the formation of the joint drafting committee, the government was already being accused by civil society of duplicitous dealing. The government, too, had suddenly found its voice, its spin doctors like Kapil Sibal and Salman Khursheed harping on the government position; dismissing the civil society draft as garbage.
The negotiations fell through while the joint drafting committee was deliberating the arguments of either side, and the government probably didn't realize that an adamant Anna with his inherent simplicity and Gandhian traits had been able to bond with the middle classes. There was a groundswell of support for him. The Manmohan Singh-led government had a lot of time before the monsoon session of Parliament began in early August to prepare a well-thought-out strategy of dealing with the 74-year-old activist. Anna had, after all, given the definite deadline of mid-August a long time ago. But, neither the government nor the Congress party had a gameplan to keep Team Anna in check.
No effort whatsoever had been made to take the allies on board or keep the Opposition posted. When Anna prepared to begin his fast on the morning of August 16, the Congress and the paralysed administration appeared not just flustered but also completely isolated. Already, party spokesman Manish Tewari had scored a self-goal by digging out a long-buried story of defalcation amounting to Rs 2.2 lakh against Anna. He had used a report which had actually absolved Anna instead of indicting him to suggest that the man from Ralegan Siddhi was "corrupt from head to toe" — an intemperate observation which landed the Congress in deep trouble.
Other insinuations of ill-gotten wealth against prominent Team Anna members like Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal appeared desperate attempts to malign the activists. Even fielding home minister P Chidambaram and telecom minister Kapil Sibal to deflate the civil society logic in favour of its Jan Lokpal bill didn't have the desired effect. The arrest of Anna Hazare on Monday morning was an ill-conceived , ill-timed move to cause confusion and break the ranks of his followers. But Team Anna, especially Anna himself, was no walkover like Ramdev. The UPA had seriously erred when it equated the two men. Their responses to a police intervention were diametrically opposite.
It has been widely discussed in Congress circles how a few wise words from Rahul Gandhi forced the government's tactical retreat. Apparently, even the government's ace trouble-shooter, Pranab Mukherjee, advised caution. There really is no way the government can hide that it is in complete disarray, that it doesn't have the political acumen or the adeptness to deal with a crisis of this nature. It is common knowledge that Manmohan Singh had never really equipped his PMO in a way that it would be able to handle serious political problems. From the beginning of the dual-power arrangement between 7 Race Course Road and 10 Janpath, it was assumed that while Singh would concentrate on governance, political inputs would be made available and even dealt with by the UPA chairperson.
Given the confused response of the government, it is absolutely unclear who is in charge. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh relies on a few heavyweights in the Cabinet but none of them have been able to come up with an administrative solution. Even the party hasn't been of much help. An ailing Sonia Gandhi did create a fourmember team to take charge in her absence but that think tank comprising AK Antony, Rahul Gandhi, Janardan Dwivedi and Ahmad Patel has met only once since the Gandhi scion's return to the country. With Sonia Gandhi convalescing after a surgery, the party looks rudderless. As far as the government is concerned, it has gradually sunk in that force will only be counterproductive if applied against Anna and his gang of anticorruption crusaders. For the moment, though, the government has adopted a wait and watch policy.
It is clear that UPA-II has some difficult tasks to accomplish. It first needs to build a consensus across the political spectrum. Legislative sovereignty of Parliament cannot be the only meeting ground for the parties. It could, of course, exploit cracks in Team Anna, with different members occasionally speaking in disparate voices, and use this to open a dialogue. But insisting that the government bill is with the Standing Committee may not be an argument that will cut much ice with the Lokpal activists.
After all, Anna Hazare has created some expectations among the adulating masses and he cannot possibly retract his own statements. The government will have to make definite concessions before Anna decides to quit. The UPA has lost its chance to dismiss this movement as one led by rank outsiders without political credentials. There is no escaping the reality that the popular mood has swung heavily in Anna's favour.