"House bows to Anna whip", "Parliament yields to Anna", "Anna wins it for the people" are some of the screaming headlines in newspapers today. But has he really achieved?
Opinion is divided among politicians, journalists and others with majority feeling that while the issue of corruption he projected may have drawn national attention, the methods he employed may not have been appreciated.
Some feel that the 74-year-old Gandhian has "achieved a lot" but they also question the methods used by him and his team which sometimes appeared to be undermining constitution and Parliament.
Hazare initially went on a hunger strike setting a deadline of August 30 for passage of civil society's Jan Lokpal Bill by Parliament without referring it to the Standing Committee.
The civil society had also sought inclusion of Prime Minister, higher judiciary and MPs conduct in Parliament within the purview of the bill but he settled for referring three of his key issue to the committee which will report back to Parliament.
Eminent jurist P P Rao and journalists Chandan Mitra and Vinod Mehta feel that Hazare did achieve a lot by getting Parliament to endorse three of his crucial demands in the Jan Lokpal Bill for consideration by Parliamentary Standing Committee.
More From This Section
MPs belonging to Congress and BSP feel the methods adopted by him were not appropriate, while SP leader Mohan Singh said the methods created a fear of scrutiny among the political class.
The politicians are one in that Parliament has prevailed over Hazare that it has not conceded any of his major demands but only referred some issues for scrutiny by the Standing Committee.
"Team Anna played several tricks, including using the life of the Gandhian (Hazare) for some sort of leverage. The media should have revealed and discussed those to make their coverage a balanced one," Mehta said.
"There have been a lot of debates on how the government mishandled the whole issue, but hardly there was any such discussion to expose the weak points of the Anna campaign."
According to Thapar, what the media did do was to project the deep national concern over corruption.
"It reflected the anger and frustration of the people. But in terms of critical, objective and balanced coverage, it gave the impression of siding with Anna and of not fully representing the view points of the government."
On whether the media has been able to uphold journalistic ethics while covering the issue, the experts said they don't feel the media was not at their best.
"When it becomes a competition for TRP, ethics hardly comes into play," says Rao.
Thapar believes, "It seems the media has undermined the ethics a bit while trying to reflect the national mood, which they also have helped create and enhance."
"One role the media played was to ventilate public opinion, but in doing so they also played the role of encouraging and of siding with it, which is wrong," he said.
"There is a lot of introspection the media has to do on what and how they have to cover a big issue," Mehta added.
Mitra, however, has a different take on this. "I think the media has to reflect what the public mood is. Some excesses could have happened here and there, but I would not blame the newspapers or TV for that. I think the media did a good job in the entire thing," he said.
According to the experts, the news channels behaved as if they were caught up with just one story and ignored, or under reported, all other important events happening in the country and worldwide.
"They seem to have been so obsessed with this Anna episode that they almost ignored other important news, the Libyan conflict, for instance," Thapar pointed out.
"Covering basic issues are more important. Dissemination of information about other events is also important," Rao said.
This obsession with Anna campaign drew flak from politicians as could be seen from the attack MPs launched on the media coverage during the debate on Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament yesterday.
Taking a dig at the news channels, JD-U leader Sharad Yadav said,"Is dibbe se bahut dikkat hai (This idiot box gives a lot of trouble)."
He felt that news channels seriously believed they were running the country through debates but told them that it was Parliament that was entrusted with the affairs of the nation.
In his speech, DMK MP T K S Elangovam said that media had turned Hazare's crusade against corruption into a fight against the Constitution.
"It began as a fight against corruption and media made it a fight against the government, then Parliament, and now it appears to be a fight against the Constitution," he said.
Shiv Sena's Anant Geete went a bit further and levelled the charge that "round-the-clock" coverage from Ramlila ground as "paid news" which is also corruption.
Rao thinks it is time the TV channels should realise and rethink their content and priority.