Congress' Hazare 'advantage'

There are now two theories of who provides the real support for Anna Hazare. The old one is that he and his movement are the creation of the right wing and that they were actually card-holding members of some of its parties. The newer theory is that Hazare is actually an agent of – hold your breath – the ruling Congress party. During the second instalment of his anti-corruption protest in the capital, there are two sub-theories to this one. The first is that the Congress needs Hazare’s protest badly to distract attention from its plan to push such reforms as foreign direct investment in retail through the Cabinet without too much opposition from the allies. The second explanation hinges on a possible Hazare-led political front ahead of the 2014 general elections. If it becomes popular, the explanation goes, then the votes going to the Opposition would be split and the Bharatiya Janata Party would be the loser.