If corruption is just a symptom of a deeper malaise, rest assured that Anna Hazare and his colleagues have got not only their diagnosis right but also the treatment. If what we saw in April and August, the fasts at Jantar Mantar and the Ramlila Maidan, was like administering an allopathic medicine for an acute disease, then it has also been supported also by some ayurvedic stuff for the chronic illness that has gripped our republic. Anna and Company’s campaign in Hisar, in the run-up to the Lok Sabha by-elections, is a booster dose for the campaign.

India Against Corruption leaders have met the candidates, asking each of them to pledge that they would support the draft Jan Lokpal bill if he gets elected to parliament. (The Congress candidate is the only one among prominent contestants not to take the pledge; others have happily signed on the dotted line, given the belligerent mood of the people when it comes to corruption.) Meanwhile, Anna’s supporters – students and housewives, lawyers and chartered accountants, villagers and activists – have fanned out across that constituency in Haryana, distributing pamphlets, stickers and badges. They have been telling them which candidates stand for Jan Lokpal  and which ones don’t. People can take their own decision and vote accordingly.

Here is how this deft move deepens our democracy. If the citizens’ voice is to reach parliament, it has to be through MPs. Our representatives are in parliament to represent us, but that happens rarely. In Hisar, voters have as if come together and given the candidates a one-point manifesto. It would be a mistake to call this coercion. Anna and his advisors have in fact shown great respect for parliament and have taken the only democratic path available to press the demand.

Now that this has been done, we wonder why other campaigners for other causes did not think of this direct option – just as was the case with the opinion polls India Against Corruption carried out in Chandni Chowk of Delhi, Amethi and elsewhere in July and BJP stalwart Rajnath Singh’s constituency, Ghaziabad in early October. Indeed, seeking the pledge from election candidates is the logical step after the surveys.

Anna and his colleagues – notably Prashant Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi – have been thus challenging several assumptions about democratic processes which the political class had forced the voters to make over the years.

These assumptions, if made explicit, go like this: Citizens are supposed to cast their votes once in five years and then forget all about it. The MPs know very well what is good for the people, so the people need not press their demands with agitations which, you know, may not be compatible with our constitution. MPs, in turn, are in a similar position too. Their party bosses know better. In a broader scheme of things, the party chiefs will try to connect with the mood of the masses to win the next elections.

No definition of democracy will lead to this pyramid structure of power. The constitution did not envisage such a hierarchy. But nearly six decades later, this is how the things stand. Corruption, more than merely a matter of financial irregularities, is the symptom of this skewed practice of democracy in which masses remain at the margins. Every scam essentially is a message from a politician to the masses that their needs are a low priority for him.

Nearly all moves of the anti-corruption crusade have targeted these postulates in what would now seem to be a well orchestrated manner.
Whether Anna Hazare had analysed this in such a way before starting out in not the issue, but the movement led by him is bringing the people closer to the centre. Seen this way, it makes sense that while breaking his August fast, Anna had promised that the next phase of his campaign would focus on election reforms. And what better way to start off than canvassing before the election candidates?