Anna Hazare is a medievalist of no further consequence to India. It is now too late to change the image he has formed in the minds of millions. Simply saying that he will no longer campaign only against Congress won't help him. It's over.

Anna is neither a Gandhi (with a strong foundation in the theory of non-violence), nor a proponent of classical Hinduism like Gandhi was (Gandhi meticulously distinguished his wholistic view of Hinduism from parochial, fascist Hindutva and RSS-type ideas).

Indeed, Anna's violent village-level habits – of whipping people by tying them to a pole – are no longer a secret but widely known. And his anti-democratic refusal to allow elections to be held in his village. And his dictatorial ban on eating meat by Dalits. 

All in all, Anna is DEFINITELY not the kind of leader India wants for its future. 

But Arvind Kejriwal is a potential leader of tomorrow's India. He still has potential, despite some mistakes. 

For instance, his RTI movement was good. It was (a relatively small) part of systemic improvement of India's governance. But by chasing after the mirage of Lokpal, he moved into an irrelevant reform (it is not a systemic solution at this stage). And aligning with the medievalist Anna Hazare was a big mistake. It now makes him appear anti-Congress (i.e. not independent).

He needs to rapidly retrieve himself from Anna, or he will need to openly join BJP to survive. He can't remain independent after his strong association with the politically aligned Anna.

Arvind should speak up strongly about economic and governance reforms that India needs. Corruption is an interesting and important issue, but its causes are the problem, not corruption per se (which is merely the symptom). Corruption is like the fever that a malaria patient has, not the malaria parasite that causes the fever. Shortage of Lokpal is not the cause of corruption, socialism is – and hence the primary problem of India. So that must go.

In particular I'd suggest that Arvind consider promoting the electoral reforms I've outlined in detail in BFN.

I'm visiting India in February and (if he wishes) I can explain these reforms to him, so he can then become an independent exponent of GOOD IDEAS for India.

And he MUST, thereafter, commit to contesting elections – on a platform NOT RELATED to Congress or BJP. This endless carping against India's parliamentarians is self-defeating. By insulting India's democracy, he insults the intelligence of Indians who elected these representatives, and no one can take that kind of insult for long. If he is so "holier-than-thou" then let him offer his candidacy.

If he then starts speaking in the voice of LIBERTY, FTI membership could be opened for him.

Related posts:

1. Anna wants to change government but is he prepared to contest elections? Or is he a stooge of BJP?
2. If Anna wants to change laws, let him become an MP. No more of this street “democracy”, please.
3. This flimflam about Jan LokPal bill won’t clean India’s image
4. Team Anna should keep Anna under check – good advice on Facebook
5. The Anna fad is already over. Mindless chatter is back on Facebook
6. Anna can’t guarantee ZERO CORRUPTION. I can, and do
7. Anna Hazare peaked in August 2011 (and never regained ground)
8. Finally Anna Hazare is talking some sense – the need for a new clean party
9. Giving credit where it is due: Anna Hazare has awakened India
10. Please do shut up, BJP. Regardless of its errors, Team Anna is 1000 times superior to you