They have proved doomsayers wrong, once again. Anna and his colleagues are at it again, this time making a valuable intervention in the crucial assembly elections. This should silence those who called the Mumbai fast a flop show and thought the movement was finally over.

During the Hisar by-poll last year, we all debated if the allegedly “anti-politics” movement should get political. Some of us thought what’s the harm, and when you are leading a nationwide campaign you’d better take position and go to people. It was a logical extension of the movement – if you are making your point before the representatives of people, why not go a step further and make your point before the people themselves?

Still, some of us had doubts about Team Anna getting their hands dirty in electoral politics. Now this was a different matter. In opposing one party, you end up supporting another party, which too may not have a praiseworthy record in fighting corruption. Some would argue all parties have skeletons in their cupboards and all parties looked at the Lokpal bill only from the perspective of their own political interests.

Medha Patkar, not a member of the core team but a staunch supporter of the movement right from the start, last month did not agree with the Team strategy of singling out the Congress. (This does not mean she is pro-Congress or anything. The Narmada Bachao Andolan she has led has got a stick from all political quarters.)

Team Anna seems to have taken her view on board, as the first bunch of letters they have despatched to the Congress, BJP, BSP and SP [attached below] show they are equidistant from them all. This should close an unnecessary debate and waste of energy.

Whether Team Anna’s campaign in the run-up to the assembly elections in five states will impact the results or not is not important (though you can make your prediction in out Day’s Debate: Will Team Anna make an impact on poll results?). More important points is: Will it hurt the democracy or strengthen it if a civil society initiative reaches out to the voters, instead of making petitions before their representatives (or going to courts and so on)? For the whole civil society sector since independence, this is an innovative method to bring about a change.

Thus, even if the result in every constituency is decided on caste and other age-old equations, the campaign by Anna and colleagues will make a beginning that was long overdue. It will create a platform for similar, people’s movements to argue their case before people in the years to come.

Also of interest:
Team Anna wants Common Man to frame laws
To observe Republic Day as 'Save Republic Day'