Deconstructing Anna: Why is nobody calling the courtier naked?

By Manu Kant

 

Winston Churchill
famously said of Russia: “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.” Ditto for Anna. Ditto for Anna’s Hindu India. Ditto for my India. Ditto for your India. India is an enigma. Having said that I think the key to this INDIA ENIGMA lies as Churchill said in its ‘national interest’.

So, what is India’s ‘national interest’? It is same to what is in the interest of ‘Hindu India’. In the interest of Hindus. Afterall, India is still ruled by a minority of uppercaste Hindus though the Indian govt. is headed by a Sikh minority PM and his party, that is Congress (I) is headed by a Italian-born Christian Sonia Gandhi. What a paradox?!

So, this makes India a ‘bhoolbhalyia! (a labyrinthine) and you thought ASI (Archeological Survey of India) had neglected India’s many ancient bhoolbhalyias and let them crumble to the ground. No. India is an indestructible ‘bhoolbhalyia’! At present the ‘head guide’ of this ‘bhoolbhalyia’ is a Hindu ascetic Anna Hazare. He is prodding all the people albeit covertly who are trapped inside the ‘bhoolbhalyia’ to turn overtly Hindu if they seek salvation. This Hindu ascetic has 3 other Hindu babas with him, namely: Baba Ramdev, Baba Agnivesh, and Baba Sri Sri of Art of Living.

What Anna Hazare is promising to the people of India is nothing less than ‘moksha’. Salvation from corruption! As if there was a magic wand to wipe out corruption. Poof and the corruption is gone! Poof & the corrupt system is gone! Poof and the corrupt feudal-capitalistic institutions are gone! Poof and the corrupt bureaucracy is gone! Poof! Poof! I wonder why didn’t Lenin POOF?! Why he had to struggle for decades to lay the foundations for a socialist revolution?!

And who is Anna Hazare?

Anna is not only an ascetic but an ascetic par excellence. Anna is a revolutionary. A true revolutionary in the best traditions of Marxism. & therefore, Anna is significant step forward in the history of revolution.

Marx was a son of a lawyer who wanted to be a philosophy professor. Lenin was a mere school teacher. Both, Marx & Lenin were typical representatives of PETIT-BOURGEOIS. Anna is significantly different. Anna is son of the soil. A peasant in peasant India and in his earlier avatar Anna was a truck driver in the formidable Indian army. This almost undoubtedly makes Anna Hazare an insurrectionary revolutionary.

No wonder Anna Hazare has taken India by storm. As of 18th August not only middle-class is his avowed constituency but workers, peasants, unemployed et al from across the length and breadth of India are joining his revolution. Anna Hazare has completely side-lined India’s myraid ML parties & groups.

Did I say: revolution? Nay his anti-corruption crusade.

So, in our story we come to the natural question: Who is real Anna Hazare?

The fact is: Anna Hazare by launching his anti-corruption agitation is putting horse behind the cart. What India needs is a socio-political revolution which puts the feudal-capitalist system under the scanner! A revolution which puts the big bourgeois under the microscope. The very class which in fact holds the reins of power to whom even the political class is beholden to. A revolution which usurps the old order and sweeps away the instruments of ultimate class power, namely the police in the first place and the army. A revolution in short that ushers in the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat.

And what Anna Hazare is doing?

Anna is questioning only the political class and the bureaucracy as if the font of corruption nay the faultlines in the system lie in these two classes. As if putting the political class and the bureaucracy under the scanner Indian people would get a just and equitable socio-political system. Anna Hazare proposes to establish a supreme people’s authority –  LOKPAL and who would be represent this LOKPAL but the representatives of the ruling class itself. The corrupt classs itself! A PARADOX indeed. But this is only a facade. This is not either real Anna nor Anna Hazare’s real motive, that is, to fight corruption. Everybody knows corruption in itself is always last on the agenda to be tackled be it a bourgeoisie revolution or a socialist revolution.

Anna Hazare ought to know that the roots of corruption lie in the faulty, unjust and inequitable socio-economic-political system. The roots of corruption lie in the capitalist system which is driven by profit motive. But how would he know? He is an ex-army trucker who has no knowledge of the ABC of either political science or political philosophy and far from any knowledge of Marxism. I wonder if he has even heard the name of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin – the father of Russian revolution. It is certainly a settled question that Anna Hazare has no inkling of the existence of Lenin’s The State and Revolution which examines in depth the power of the State and from where the ruling class gets its power.

The real Anna Hazare is infact no more than a puppet propped by a corrupt regime which is a cog albeit vital one in the whole ruling class led by the political class and in the present case by India’s leading political party Congress (I).

Anna Hazare is willing or unwittingly furthering 4 agendas:

1. To push into a corner the Maoist/Marxist ideology which was gaining currency in the minds of the Indians in the wake of Maoist rebellion & the OPERATION GREENHUNT which subsequently the Indian ruling class launched.

2. To veer India towards fundamentalist brand of Hinduism.

3. Usurpation of political power by the corporates.

4. A safety valve for the tired & exasperated Indians to let out their built up steam into safe channels of Hindu India.

This is real Anna Hazare.

Deconstruct Anna Hazare and exit the ‘bhoolbhalyia’ that India is. Moksha or no moksha. The choice is yours. Meanwhile, The Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) bill is all set to be tabled in Parliament.