What ails Team Anna in 2012??

Anna Hazare and his team have started their agitation again! I am surprised by the lack lustre response by the media, this time. India’s channel, as claimed by Arnab G has decided to skip their 24/7 live reporting of the fast and even the print media are not interested.  Funny, how the headlines read this time, one paper even calls it as Anna Hazare’s circus in Jantar Mantar!! This same paper went gaga over his earlier fasts and agitations.

So, what’s the reason for the low turnout to Team Anna this time round??

Here is my take:

Anna Hazare is a very nice and well intentioned man but the movement per se lacks the collective focus and intelligence to carry it through to the logical conclusion of an effective Lokpal. Besides, his team members seem to be having divergent agenda and methodology, right from campaigning for state elections, taking an anti- congress stance, transparency within the Team Anna committee meetings and focus. Besides, formulation of Lokpal bill needs some wisdom, maturity and balance, mere sloganeering and social networking skills aren’t obviously enough.

The media did their bit in whipping up passions and emotions ran high with 24/7 reporting on TV in 2011. This helped them grab TRPs and the media barons were happy with Anna and his team. But Team Anna, instead of consolidating the gains and the ‘free’ support from media and youth, frittered away their chances. Many of the members became as brash and annoying as the congress leaders they were fighting! Thus began the beginning of the end. Today, media is quite apathetic to Team Anna as there is probably something better for them, to grab TRPs. They have realised that Indians like armchair activism and the likes of Satyameva Jayate programmes generate more revenue for the media houses and are easier to support (I mean politically correctJ).

The second theory of mine is that Anna Hazare movement was a media creation, in the first place. Media decided to back him and his team, and got the urban youth to rally around them and when the media didn’t back them this time, the same urban youth have gone missingJ