Even after seeing the mass upsurge all over the country in favour of Anna’s remand and bill on August 16, Manmohan Singh and his government are still in mood of confrontation and don’t wish to learn from its mistakes. Mass movements as clear from the reports in media, are not the wars of arguments and debates that can be faced and fought in court with lawyers and with elocution in legislatures. It requires mass leaderships to face the mass on streets and lanes that has certain perception created by the real or imaginary wrong doing against the people.

Manmohan Singh and his lieutenants still are trying to emphasize on the supremacy of parliament to bring all parliamentarians on their side when they are to focus on changing the perception of the millions on the street. The opposition just slammed the argument. Even if the aggrieved opposition MPs agree it will hardly help against the mass uprising created by Anna’s demand for a strong Lokpal through Jan Lokpal Bill instead of weakly structured government’s bill. Manmohan’s men are also spreading the misgivings in parliament and with media that Anna is rigid. He and his teams want only the bill drafted by them with no modifications to be passed by parliament. Instead of selling their failures, they must go for solutions to get over the unique but dangerous situation.

The solution can be one of the three.

Manmohan’s government agrees for taking over the motherhood of Jan Lokpal Bill and places before the parliament as its own. It’s may be difficult today as the bill is already with standing committee. The government has initiated the bills authored by civil society of NAC. Why should it hesitate now.

Alternatively, some MPs including some from the Congress or UPA but acceptable to Anna negotiate on inclusion of certain key issues or points of difference and make him agree through give and take and incorporate the negotiated aspects.

The government and opposition comes out fast with a new bill that is superior in every respect with Jan Lokpal Bill and perceived so and is sold to Anna
., his team and to the Indian people using mass media.

The sooner Manmohan and his men particularly Kapil Sibal and Chidambaram give up the confrontation, the better it will be for the nation.

Manmohan can have a face saving by retiring and the Congress must allow the better person in Manmohan’s cabinet to lead the nation as Rahul Gandhi will not be the right person at this juncture. According to me, Pranab Mukherji may be one person who can steer the country out of the troubled water.