Rahul scores self goals!

11th day into protest and the government is still moving in a circle. One day it moves upward and the other day it takes a U-turn downwards. In an attempt to end the deadlock with the Team Anna, along with trying to save its own intentions to preserve freedom to corruption, the government has been going mad. They agree one day and then they backtrack the other day.

And in this circle the center has been missing in the action (majorly cause she is away from the country physically and away from the movement medically). I would not say that people were really expecting Rahul to step in to fill in for his mother. I also don't think even Congress was missing involvement of their "claimed-to-be-future-PM" in this whole situation. As all we know even Congress would prefer Rahul not to speak during this sensitive situation as the chances are more that he will break the circle and take the government in a downfall.

But I guess, frustrated of the circle, finally Rahul stepped in. And with an intent to jump higher than Team Anna, in a hope to make the agitation look like a peanut, he made two major recommendations that are different from Jan Lokpal. First was to bring the political funding under the control of government. To which, even a dumb person would agree that not a single person present in the parliament would agree with fully (including Rahul's own colleagues). So here Rahul scores the first goal for the opponents. And secondly to show that Jan Lokpal is merely a peanut, he raised his hand in support of creating an anti-corruption institution as a constitutional institution like election commission.

Having Lokpal as a constitutional institution means quite a big thing. It will make the body completely independent of Parliament. And hence the freedom to investigate matters concerning the members of parliament will become reality.

But wait a minute, before starting to dream of a corruption-less (purposely not using corruption-free) India, lets first try to understand the intentions behind such a big suggestion. Is it that Rahul had suddenly got his conscience woken up? Or is it that even he had to pay bribes at 100 locations and hence had been thinking about this problem since a long time?

Or is it that to end the deadlock and to bring back the torn image of his party and the government that he is heading (virtually if not really), he has come up with this "formula"? Why this big idea was put in by him while other very senior and much more educated members of his team (including the PM) being present at the parliament. Is it that since other members had already tried their chances and eventually lost their credibility, they kept Rahul as an ace of spades for the big blow?

Whatever being the reason one thing is clear, that the intentions are still not the right one. I would not iterate the thousands of incidences in the near past to prove the prior statement. So what could be the real reason supporting their real intentions? I can think of only one reason. Since everyone know that amendments in the constitution are far longer and complex process than passing a bill, this could be their super formula to buy more time on the issue and temporarily get away from the situation.

However while trying to end the present deadlock temporarily, Rahul had scored another self goal. For many reasons. Firstly that this idea is something which can be looked as complimentary to the Jan Lokpal. Because as Dr. Kiran Bedi said, one has to climb a hill before even thinking about climbing Everest. So now for the government, to show seriousness and support towards their future PM's comment, they will have to seriously show their commitment towards the first step which is Jan Lokpal. And once this is over, it would not be over for them. Because now to abide by a statement for which all the government members clapped, they will have to start working towards it. If at a later stage they show their unwillingness towards taking up the dream statement of their prince to reality, Team Anna or for that matter any other civil organization can start another agitation. And yes they will get similar support for sure.

So in a way, while trying to put an end to this protest, Rahul has given a direction to the civil society and the people of India to start another one.

By the way, he also condemned this movement saying that this agitation will set wrong example and will provoke others to agitate in similar manner for unreasonable demands in future. Firstly, by saying this at least he also agrees that this agitation is not unreasonable (another shot at self post). Secondly, if in future anyone starts an agitation with unreasonable demand, I really don't think that it will get this much support. After all People of India are not so foolish that they will voice their support for any unreasonable demand.

Even the government knows that its not the agitation that is holding them on ransom but it is the huge unprecedented public support. So all I say in future Congress member may actually think of bribing Rahul to 'not to speak'.