By Rajesh Kalra

The way the ruling UPA government in India has reacted and acted to quell Anna Hazare's campaign against corruption shows the complete bankruptcy of ideas in its think-tank. I am not sure what is happening behind the scenes in the government, but the response and the unprecedented swoop on his supporters in Delhi (and elsewhere), and the high-handedness with which things are being done, show a government that is desperately trying to reclaim all that it has lost but has absolutely no clue how to go about it. In the process, it is not only building up Anna as an even larger than life persona, but making even the fence sitters move into Anna's camp.

I have had a lot of reservations against some of the clauses in Anna's Jan Lokpal bill and have even had detailed discussions with Arvind Kejriwal on those issues. Most of these dwell around the practicality of some of the demands. However, I have always looked at it as something that is evolving. With proper discussions, all this would have been sorted out and a very credible, and practical bill could have been readied and presented to the parliament. But the government chose to hoodwink everyone by tricking a simpleton Anna into breaking his fast in April, promising a joint drafting committee, only to start its shenanigans soon after, in a most shameless manner.

I remember saying more than once that one can't trust this government when it promises that it will work together with the civil society on a credible Lokpal bill. Why? Because this government has far too many people who are smart alec and think they are the ultimate spin doctors around. All this could have been OK in the pre 24 x 7 TV era, or before the social media gained in size and influence. More importantly, it is the social media crowd that these smart alec kinds target with their irritating remarks, so it was natural that they were torn apart in no time.

The way the government has acted earlier last week shows desperation creeping in. While one can understand that the Independence Day was round the corner and our country is genuinely living under constant terror threat, the government moves were stupid.

Honestly, how can anyone say that the protest has to be over in three days and that no more than 50 cars should assemble? This is a mass protest, for God's sake. And it is not that the protest was suddenly decided. The date was announced months in advance and the government had enough time to decide the venue and other arrangements.

What fuelled the angst against the government even more was the entirely senseless personal attack on Anna by the Congress party. Its articulate and sulking (he was expecting to be made a Minister in the reshuffle but lost out for the second time in a few months) spokesperson was forced to fish out an 8-year-old report to say Anna himself was corrupt.

It was only when the government realized that the ploy had backfired that everybody jumped in the fire-fighting mode, with even the motor mouth Digvijay Singh saying there was nothing against Anna. But as always, he put his foot in mouth soon after by saying that Arvind Kejriwal is corrupt. I will stick my neck out and say that if Arvind is corrupt, then there is no clean person in this nation.

It is about time this government realizes that either the days of the dirty tricks departments are over, or they need to change their strategy. When there is a genuine movement to control the cancer of corruption, it can be channelized for nation building. Turning into a police state to crush the movement because it will hamper the greed of some will only alienate them more. This government lost a golden opportunity to come out with a credible act to control corruption. By now acting like a tyrannical state, it is only digging its own grave.