The anti-politician feeling generated by Anna Hazare's agitation, combined with Arvind Kejriwal's association with the Youth for Equality, the organisation that spearheaded the anti-reservation agitation in the AIIMS, has triggered a sense of unease among parliamentarians belonging to Dalit and backward communities.
Dalit and OBC MPs on Wednesday lamented the "attack on the supremacy of Parliament and the Constitution". From BJP's Hukumdeo Narain Yadav to JD-U president Sharad Yadav and Lok Janshakti Party president Ram Vilas Paswan, there was a sharp attack on what the MPs said was an attempt to "undermine the Constitution".
This happened on a day when Dalit leader Udit Raj of the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations led a march of around 500 activists from Jantar Mantar to India Gate againstHazare's agitation. The rally brought peak hour evening traffic to a crawl in central Delhi.
"Anna must clarify his stand on several issues before he speaks about the Jan Lokpal Bill," Raj said. The protesters said Hazare's protest was as "upper caste movement that has little to do with the oppressed classes of society". Udit Raj's supporters criticised Team Anna's Bill for leaving out of Lokpal's ambit NGOs, media and the corporate sector.
Like them, the Dalit MPs too felt that the Jan Lokpal Bill assumes supremacy of an unelected panel over legislature, executive and the judiciary. This has instilled a fear among MPs belonging to weaker sections who perceive Hazare's stir as an upper- caste movement.
Narain Yadav, a Lok Sabha MP from Bihar, expressed his unhappiness at the " exclusion" of weaker sections from the debate at the BJP parliamentary party meeting.
JD-U president Sharad Yadav received applause from the treasury as well as the Opposition benches when he said corruption in society was linked to the caste system and couldn't be eliminated through a law alone.
"No law can prevent corruption that is inherent in Indian society because of the caste system. Unless there is social justice, corruption will continue to plague the system. When the drains are flowing with sewage, how will sprinkling a bit of DDT help? You need to clean the drain," Yadav said in the Lok Sabha.
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