Though there is no celebration of it, today is an important date. The fight for an effective Lokpal bill and the campaign against corruption – or broadly speaking, people’s fight for the right to be heard – was launched on this day a year ago.

A motley group of civil society activists – ranging from Prashant Bhushan to Ram Jethmalani and from Medha Patkar to Kiran Bedi – gathered at the Ramlila Maidan, where they pledged to fight for more effective laws to combat corruption. It was organised by Arvind Kejriwal, already a Magsaysay Award winner, but not a household name he was to become. Anna Hazare was not there, he was to lead the next phase of this campaign in early April.

Those were the days when the scandal that was the organisation of the Commonwealth Games and the 2G spectrum loot were making it to the page one day in and day out. There was outrage, people said enough is enough, but there was no platform to channelize this anguish. The powers that be could ignore the murmurs on the street.

On the morning of January 30, whether the people who matter in the government even took note of it or not, we do not know. Police might have thought, yet another march by do-gooders, needless bandobast duty.

For our extensive coverage and views on the movement as it unfolded, click here

But when the bunch of concerned citizens marched from the Ramlila Maidan to the Jantar Mantar, they saw thousands of citizens who had found themselves to be equally concerned now. The rest, as they say, is history in the making. This scene was repeated in every major city, and NRIs too held rallies abroad.

That was the start of a unique movement in our history. A movement that generated debate – and not just on TV or edit pages – like few events have. You are either for it or against. You either supported it, or spoke out against it, nobody ignored it.

Except the government, and some political parties – but five days of Anna’s fast at Jantar Mantar in April made them believers too. In the days to come, students and housewives, humble clerks and bigshot lawyers, tens of thousands of people were giving time, taking out torchlight processions, collecting signatures on petitions, posting angry messages on websites and the movement was on.
But for this movement, we might have had a Lokpal by now with offices next to the CVC and equally effective. But for this movement, the Lokpal bill would have been put in the cold storage and none would be the wiser except a few editorial writers. Belittling its achievements is a favourite pastime for some, and we are waiting for them to tell us that but for Anna, the UPA would have banished corruption by now.

Much has been written about it, and there is no need to recap it here. A year later, it is time to take stock. Team Anna, as the Indian Against Corruption core committee has been christened, have had their moments of introspection. They could have organised a rally or a meeting, and taken supporters’ suggestions for the future of the movement.

However, no event was organised. No celebration was planned. The mood is not all that upbeat. The movement, apparently, is at a standstill. Politics has finally got the better of it, apparently. With parliamentary procedures and amendments and so on to buy time. Seasoned politicians of the Congress, having weathered similar protests and movements, probably knew there was a use-by date to public anger. The Mumbai fast last month boosted their hopes.

The Congress politicians were not alone. They were ably supported, as Team Anna has pointed out, by other parties which too had reasons to fear a strong Lokpal. But the prize for the best supporting actor goes to our chatterati. A section of the media, intellectuals and commentators, went after Anna with a newfound zeal that, if targeted at scamsters earlier, might have made the movement unnecessary. There is no defence of Kiran Bedi’s vouchers (and the core committee would have a stronger moral voice without her), but the same section of the media would not put other vouchers under a scanner (and when CAG would, they would pull him up too).

The result is, the movement is searching for a direction. Take Anna Hazare’s recent pronouncements: a gram sabha more powerful than parliament, a referendum commission and so on. Ridiculous or impractical, depending on where you stand. But it all makes sense when you see them as different manifestations of the same concept of ‘direct democracy’ which was at the heart of the movement he has led. However, you can’t take a mammoth movement forward by enlarging its specifics to vague concepts. Why he is enlarging the specifics (a strong Lokpal)? Because UPA has won time after introducing it in the Rajya Sabha.

The work towards ‘direct democracy’ is important, more important than any other slogan; but it needs to be worked from grassroots upwards. At the present (and crucial) juncture, the focus should remain on the fight against corruption, on the Lokpal bill. How to continue to do so when the initial enthusiasm is wearying is up to Anna and his colleagues. There lies the difference between a mass movement and a successful mass movement.