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Moreover, with the government not having given any commitment to include his demands, it may wait for the euphoria of the “peoples’ movement” to die down before it goes back to its cavalier mode again.

In order to influence decision making, Anna Hazare has to be a part of governance and will have to join the political system to cleanse it.

So, what is the way forward for him? The logical conclusion would be for Anna to form a political party with like-minded (or corrupt-free) people and contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Even though Anna Hazare has clinched nation-wide support for the second innings of his movement, it would be hard to say whether he will come out with a thumping majority if he and his representatives contest the forthcoming central elections in 2014.

But it can at least be said that Anna, as a politician, could mop up adequate numbers to influence decision making in Parliament. That would be the legal way forward for him and not through his current movement.

Moreover, with age catching up, Anna Hazare may not be able to wade his way to a corrupt-free India all by himself and will have to look at a second rung leadership, which can sustain Anna’s journey to a corrupt-free India.

But without Anna being a part of the political process, we will see the fire lit by him douse soon as any government knows that if it tries to weed out the roots of corruption, it would see itself uprooted.

The government had to be literally pushed to the wall to yield to Anna’s demand and will seize every opportunity to rollback this decision, and if Anna does not become a part of the Parliamentary system, he will be fighting a losing battle, giving the government elbow room to brand the stir as illegitimate and appeal to the courts to stop the inexorable protests such as the current one.

If the government has its way, it surely will try to stonewall every move to tackle corruption. Therefore, Anna Hazare must fight a legitimate battle by forming a party, going to the polls and entering Parliament.

It can then pursue the issue of curbing (and eliminating) corruption, which will surely be a long-drawn process.

Therefore, if Anna Hazare joins politics and battles corruption, it will leave Parliament shaken, not stirred.

So, Anna Hazare has done what no Indian has ever done: rattle India’s most stable party – the Congress – and could this lead to him becoming the President of India one day?

The bypolls at Hisar (Haryana) and Daraunda (Bihar) show that Anna power has worked (he had told the people to vote against the Congress) and, if his influence continues to grow like now, the Congress may be on its way out from the Centre, unless it can heed to Anna’s demands while formulating the Lok Pal Bill.

Moreover, in two other bypolls recently (Banswada in Andhra Pradesh and Khadakwasla in Maharashtra), Anna’s voice found place in the hearts of people of two more states and thus resulted in the Congress being jolted from states ruled by the party.

This whitewash in the bypolls is a major setback for the Congress.

Anna’s campaign had such devastating effect on the party that it managed to come third in the Hisar byelection, for instance.

There are only two ways by which the party can save itself: one, it should incorporate all elements of Anna Hazare’s demands in the Lok Pal Bill, like bringing the Prime Minister under the ambit of the Lok Pal and the other way out is have Anna aides beaten up to intimidate him and his supporters.

If the violence succeeds to create fear on Anna and his supporters, it could act as a big impediment to the movement against corruption and the Lok Pal Bill.

This would see India’s biggest movement against corruption (which is giving a ray of hope to crores of Indians) wane and finally die down.

Meanwhile, Anna Hazare’s movement seems to have the support of the saffron brigade (read the RSS and the BJP), even though the hardcore Hindutva elements continue to deny it.

That is why the BJP is largely remaining silent on the matter

So, before the next general elections in 2014, Anna Hazare’s voice is set to get louder, and if the Congress fails to tame it, the party could become history, at least for the next five years (after which it can decide to project Rahul Gandhi as its prime ministerial candidate).

Also, the numerous corruption cases and controversies surfacing from the Congress and its inability to douse them indicate that the party could be in for big trouble in the days to come.

And, the beneficiary of Congress party’s loss is (no prizes for guessing) the BJP.

Now, if the BJP comes to power, one of the things it is likely to do is drum up support for Anna Hazare (who is getting popular by the day) to become the next President of India as, till date, his credibility remains intact, even though various factions are giving their own versions of his intentions of protesting against corruption in high places.

Anna Hazare’s fast may be the beginning to tame corruption in India but the Lokpal Bill, for which he had gone on an indefinite fast, could face some pragmatic difficulties in its implementation.

The Lokpal (an ombudsman, which is slated to come up in every state), if set up, could make India a Ram Rajya literally:

Firstly, the Bill proposes to take corruption head on with it proposing that corruption cases will be decided within a year instead of lingering on for years.

Secondly, the corrupt person concerned, be it a judge, bureaucrat or a politician will have to be sent to jail within two years and the loss incurred to the government will have to be recovered at the time of conviction.

Thirdly, it is also set to give teeth to the common man. If there is red tapism, he or she could go and complain to the Lokpal, for instance, if he or she has not got his voter ID or ration card.

The Lokpal is supposed to get it done within one month. The Lokpal can implement a financial penalty on government officers if a citizen’s request is not taken care of immediately.

The common man can also sight cases of corruption, which would have to be taken to their logical conclusion within two years.

These may be part of the draft. Unfortunately, reality appears to be quite different.

Take for instance the telecom scam, one of India’s biggest scandals. During probe, former telecommunications minister A Raja was found guilty of irregularities and favouring certain telecom companies in its bid for 2G spectrum, causing a massive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the government exchequer.

As per the provisions of the Lokpal Bill, the loss incurred to the government will have to be recovered. So, if the Lokpal already existed, could it have wrested out Rs 1.76 lakh crore from Raja? The answer is unlikely to be in the affirmative.

The scope of the telecom scam is widening by the day. In the latest revelation, corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, who is being questioned by the CBI for her role in the telecom scam, has claimed that agriculture minister Sharad Pawar held controlling stake in DB Realty, whose promoter Shahid Balwa is cooling his heals in jail.

Sharad Pawar and family had also grabbed eyeballs for allegedly being promoter of a company that tried to buy an IPL team. While Pawar managed to wriggle out of the mess, Lalit Modi, IPL chairman, and former junior external affairs minister Shashi Tharoor were ousted from their positions over IPL controversies.

Now, in such a situation, if the Lokpal’s probe against Pawar found him not guilty, owing to lack any evidence, would not the ombudsman be wasting money, resources and time to prove one politician not guilty.

As per the Lokpal Bill, people could file cases against corrupt government servants or politicians and the case is supposed to close within two years (that is, the corrupt person should be convicted in a couple of years).

Now, India has a population of 1.2 billion. So, if we assume the number of complaints in a year to be even 0.1% of the population, that is, 12 lakh, will they be resolved in a year and the sentence handed out in another year?

Moreover, every year cases will keep on mounting. So, will the Lokpal not become similar to our courts where lakhs of cases pile up every year?

Also, are we to believe that every ombudsman will be corrupt-free even when one of our apex anti-corruption bodies, the Central Vigilance Commission, has had its latest head PJ Thomas mired in a controversy over a scam in Kerala?

We are seeing bottlenecks come in the way while forming a committee to draft the Lokpal Bill. You can well imagine what an arduous task it will be to implement the Lokpal Bill when it actually takes shape.