Celebrating Team Anna..

Exactly one year ago, commenting on IAC and Team Anna, I wrote:

There is a simple way to make the government do what you want – be the government; get in power. That is actually the hard way – much much harder than fasts. Much less glamorous than tearing and burning bills. And it will take much longer than a few months of protests…and no amount of burning paper is likely to get any of us closer to that.

To face up to India’s myriad challenges – and let us face it, corruption is just one part of it, we need a new set of people in the government – so that we don’t have to resort to burning bills and emotional blackmail. Unlike Arvind, Anna, IAC members and me, the men and women in Lok Sabha are there because someone voted for them. To challenge them, we will need to take the fight to the electoral battleground. We will need to win the hearts and mind of the people – and their votes. This is much harder than playing up to the gallery (with solutions that appear like they may work but will pretty much be pointless) but it is perhaps the only way to bring about sustained change.

Let IAC and Team Anna make it their mission to groom and prepare candidates to contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2014. Let them use their vast network, reach and captive audience to help spread the message of minimum government and maximum governance; of economic freedoms, of individual liberties…Let them work towards dismantling government controls; not towards building “another government institution which will have supreme executive power to investigate and punish the corrupt”. Let them use their formidable marketing and fund-raising skills to build a credible challenge to the system. Let them work with Freedom Team and parties such as Loksatta, Jago and others to ensure that such a challenge is credible. Let them leverage their goodwill to bring about fundamental, systemic reform rather than just one Lokpal bill. And if they do this, I will be one of the first ones to fast for this cause.

Today, I am celebrating Team Anna’s decision to end the fast and work towards creating a political alternative...

The next challenge for all of us fighting for a better India is to get Team Anna to contest on a manifesto of freedom & minimum government...and have them join us in preparing for the long war that lies ahead to “Reclaim India”..Jai Hind, Jai Bharat!