Author and political activist Arundhati Roy attacked what she described as the “aggressive nationalism” of Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement and slammed the Jan Lokpal Bill, his proposed anti-corruption law, as “draconian.”
In a Monday opinion piece published in The Hindu, Ms. Roy, who is known for her sharp and often provocative political critiques, lashed out against the rhetoric that surrounds Mr. Hazare’s public fast against the government’s draft of the Lokpal Bill. Anti-corruption activists say legislation before Parliament to set up an anticorruption ombudsman agency is too weak, and want their own version to be introduced and passed instead. (India Real Time previously wrote about how the two versions of the Lokpal differ.)
“If what we’re watching on TV is indeed a revolution, then it has to be one of the more embarrassing and unintelligible ones of recent times. For now, whatever questions you may have about the Jan Lokpal Bill, here are the answers you’re likely to get: tick the box — (a) Vande Mataram [Hail Motherland] (b) Bharat Mata ki Jai [Long live Mother India] (c) India is Anna, Anna is India (d) Jai Hind [Hail India],” she wrote.
Ms. Roy complained that “the props and the choreography, the aggressive nationalism and flag waving of Anna’s revolution… signal to us that if we do not support The Fast, we are not ‘true Indians.’ She likened the movement, among other things, to “the world-cup victory parade.”
Ms. Roy, for one, made it clear she is among those who do not support Mr. Hazare’s demands and questioned the Gandhian credentials of the 73-year-old activist.
“While his means may be Gandhian, Anna Hazare’s demands are certainly not,” she wrote, drawing attention to the extensive and, in her view, excessive powers the anti-corruption agency would have should Team Anna’s version of the Lokpal Bill be implemented.
“Contrary to Gandhiji’s ideas about the decentralisation of power, the Jan Lokpal Bill is a draconian, anti-corruption law, in which a panel of carefully chosen people will administer a giant bureaucracy, with thousands of employees, with the power to police everybody from the Prime Minister, the judiciary, members of Parliament, and all of the bureaucracy, down to the lowest government official.” The agency itself would hence become “an independent administration, meant to counter the bloated, unaccountable, corrupt one that we already have. Two oligarchies, instead of just one.”
She also noted that while the Jan Lokpal Bill would make the state institutions more accountable, it “completely” leaves out “corporations, the media and NGOs,” which she described as being increasingly powerful and potentially as corrupt as state-run bodies.
She was also critical of the movement’s limited social appeal, which she essentially described as urban and bourgeois. “‘The People’ only means the audience that has gathered to watch the spectacle of a 74-year-old man threatening to starve himself to death if his Jan Lokpal Bill is not tabled and passed by Parliament,” she wrote.
Ms. Roy is not the only high-profile public figure to have spoken against Mr. Hazare and his demands. Another Roy, leading Right-to-Information activist Aruna, reportedly urged Mr. Hazare and his aides to work with – rather than against –democratic institutions.
“We have to understand the way institutions in a democracy function. Our views would be different as we look at the issue standing at different positions. But there are certain ways to protest or engage (in settling the issue). We must make these democratic institutions work for us and they must work for us,” she said, according to the Hindustan Times.
Aruna Roy was a key figure behind the 2005 Right to Information Act, a major piece of legislation that allows citizens to request information from almost all government bodies.
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