Like Anna, Baba Ramdev’s methods will be rejected

Anna Hazare has disbanded Team Anna and retired to Ralegan Siddhi. It was the right decision; the year-long movement is over, public support has waned. We have seen all this on 24x7 television and there is little point in being repetitive. Baba Ramdev has now entered the political arena with his confused politics and mixture of yoga and health therapy along with an array of products to cure all ailments. All this is going to be another disaster in the immediate future. The one positive which will emerge in all this confusion would be better tax compliance and fewer tax deductions for religious trusts by all our religious leaders, temples and their wealth along with their charity work. I don’t think Baba Ramdev is going to be very popular with his community.

Baba Ramdev is a businessman. We wish him well, and he is most welcome to try his luck at politics and align with anyone. I do hope, however, that he has observed the dramatic rise and fall of Anna Hazare and Team Anna all within a year. The public admired and respected Anna and his agenda but rejected his methods, and Baba Ramdev will go through the same process. I think it would be very unwise for the political system to get involved directly or indirectly in this agitation. Baba Ramdev is a yoga guru and will draw crowds but will fail like Anna Hazare as his intentions are not clear. India is beyond the archaic swadeshi-videshi argument; with time, we will all see the colour of his money.

We have had a stormy start to the Monsoon Session of Parliament. Clearly, while the attention will be on the coming Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, there will be intense political activity in every state and on every Parliament seat as everyone prepares for the future. The Congress and BJP have indicated future trends on leadership issues but this by itself is not enough for a pattern to fall into place for the future. The Congress has few problems at the top as there is no challenge to Sonia Gandhi but the BJP has an issue which continues to fester as no one in the party’s central leadership is willing to retire to create space for the future. The Congress is strong at the Centre but weak in the states while the BJP is weak at the Centre and strong in the states. I wonder which is the better option.

Nothing lasts forever. Change is inevitable, and if you study a hundred great lives in any profession—and politics in particular—you will find that the majority of great and successful leaders made a mess of their reputations at the end of their career as they did not know when to time their exit. Time goes by. India has moved on and you cannot negotiate the future with the past. I am not going to make any predictions for the future but the field is open for the Congress and BJP at the Centre to score points. Anyone with 150 seats in 2014 will form the government in 2013-14. I am not very sure if regional parties can form a credible front as everyone is pulling in individual directions. Unless four or five regional parties combine and get a 100-plus seats, no one is going to trust them.

Even with 30-35 MPs, regional parties cannot be part of government formation. We have seen during the selection process of the President that regional parties did many a flip-flop. This may have been to get additional benefits for their states but this also creates a negative intention for the future. The public has watched every move. Can anyone trust a political party and its leader which bends with the political wind for personal advantage or safety? Unless there is a clear and viable combination of regional forces, they stand little chance against either the UPA or NDA. The Gujarat elections will indicate whether the UPA or NDA will draw ahead in the future. We still have four months; much can happen till December 2012.

arunnehru89@yahoo.in

Nehru is a former Union minister