By TCN Staff Correspondent,
New Delhi: If the online buzz is anything to go by, the blame game for the low turnout at social activist Anna Hazare’s third fast at MMRDA has well and truly begun. The initial response of some members of India Against Corruption, was to blame Jagruk Nagrik Manch, an affiliate of IAC for failing to get the crowds to the fast venue. But the fact is that even the Ramlila leg of the agitation in Delhi, which was spearheaded by senior members like Prashant Bhushan, Kiran Bedi and others during the same period, failed to draw over a 1000 people at any given point of time.
In fact the number of people present in Ramlila fell below 150 as the Bhushan father-son duo watched helplessly. Red-faced at the low turn-out a bitter Bedi then went on to blame the media for the no-show and reportedly said “I don’t see any changes in the headlines which appear in the newspapers. They are maintaining silence on the issues like inclusion of the CBI under the purview of Lokpal. I don’t see newspapers using their editorial page to take up the grave issue with much seriousness,” while addressing the gathering at the historic ground.
Bedi in a self-conciliatory tone added yet another spin to the low-turnout in Mumbai by saying “Lakhs of people waved their hands when Anna was leading a rally from Juhu to MMRDA on Tuesday. People were supporting Anna’s movement through various means and forums, including social networking sites and blogs.” But this found few takers amongst even the most die-hard supporters of Anna Hazare in the electronic media and online.
Arvind Kejrival’s conspiracy theory angle, that the government was preventing people from boarding buses from stands and that it had jammed mobile phone networks, was described as a “bad call” by Yogita Limaye, Mumbai correspondent of a leading English news channel in her tweet. She further tweeted that taking Anna Hazare, who was running a fever, atop an open truck in the cold winter morning followed by his day long stint as the day progressively got hotter was “unfair”.
Clearly, serious question marks were raised about the management of the entire affair. Worse still was this stinging tweet from Yogita Limaye about the manner in which IAC top leadership was trying to lay the blame of a no-show at the doorstep of its Mumbai face Mayank Gandhi and it read “@yogital: IAC Mumbai sends an explanation/defence from its Mumbai head Mayank Gandhi about low turnout! Better PR strategy please! This is defeatist!”
What perhaps lends credence to the ‘defeatist’ charge is that the press release is not traceable on the official web portal of IAC, although the portal has been regularly updated over the past few days.
A visibly miffed Nikhil Wagle, senior editor of a Marathi news channel, who has been a supporter of Team Anna, sought some difficult answers for the MMRDA fiasco with his tweets suggesting that the low turn-out could be a fallout of the increasingly political stance being adopted by a few members of team Anna, as opposed to the largely apolitical nature of the movement during the summer of 2011 which was able to strike a chord with large sections of people.
Wagle’s pointed tweets read as follows: “@waglenikhil: If some of d members of team anna have electoral agenda, let them quit d team n fight. But pl don’t spoil an essential movement!” @thekiranbedi”.
Not surprisingly, the barrage of tweets by Wagle, directed at both Bedi and Kejrival, has been met with a conspicuous and rather uncharacteristic silence! Although an unidentified account sympathetic towards Bedi and Kejrival reacted with this tweet directed at the Marathi scribe: “@mukkimouse: THE MOST DISGUSTED CHARGE MADE BY YOU NIKHIL SO FAR -”
Many followers of the movement also wondered whether the 74 year old social activist himself was now beginning to distance himself from Bedi and Kejrival in favor of more ‘saner and conciliatory’ voices like those of Medha Patkar and Santosh Hegde.
@Fight4Futur1976 tweeted “What Anna needs is a very mature core team who knows the limit, Respect every one including politicians” whereas noted film maker Mahesh Bhatt also tweeted on the rigid, political approach being adopted by the managers of Team Anna by saying: “@MaheshNBhatt: Megalomania is deluding yourself that you are the world & the world is you! Anna is not the sole spokesperson for civil society!”
Clearly, the hitherto invisible faultlines now seem to be getting more evident as a ‘virtual’ battle between two distinct camps rages on to emerge as the face of the anti-corruption movement after the MMRDA fiasco. Those who identify with Medha Patkar’s and Santosh Hegde’s leadership have begun tweeting frantically. One of them, namely @TheSecularist, suggested that ‘medhatai managed 2 save anna’s face by getting 300 ppl to mmrda. Others failed. Anna realized medhatai’s sincerity’.
The sentiment expressed by @TheSecularist found endorsement in a tweet which read “@SathyMJ: Medhaji has worked all along for the benefit of the poor, Kejriwals & Kirans may have an agenda, not Medhaji.” Yet another read as “@smohan59: #TeamAnna treats Anna with contempt using him to fast for them like how the Rich treat thier maids” while another netizen questions “@AmanWadud:Is Anna aware of @thekiranbedi s political inclination? Why is Anna silent than???????”
Shahid Burney, another pro-Medha tweeter adds “@ShahidBurney: I vouch that Team Anna core committe members are no where to the popularity of Medha Patkar. She is just great.” But Bedi/Kejrival apologists are quick to retort with equal gusto. Sample this: “@shamit11: medhatai,hegde are congressi moles just like swami agnivesh , bcos of them the protest failed”.
As a visibly drained Anna Hazare recuperates in a Pune hospital after having broken his fast half-way, the air of dejection surrounding the anti-corruption movement being marred by opportunistic factional wars and blame games was perhaps best summarized by one netizen as follows “@manojtjha: Ram Ram If you all do like this even before reaching the goal, God only can help you!”