I REMEMBER Anna Hazare was asked by an anchor of a TV channel - how did he claim to be a representative of people when they hadn’t chosen him in any election. A senile Anna boasted that he had drawn hundreds of thousands of people in Delhi during his 12-day fast protest. Following up, the pretty anchor, smilingly asked him, why he didn’t participate in elections. Anna sheepishly avoided the question with an indirect reply. But I believe that TV anchor must have got the answer after watching Anna’s rally in Mumbai today. From hundreds of thousands to few thousands, most of them would be activists and volunteers of Kejriwal’s India against Corruption NGO, Anna knows people are unpredictable here and always follow the new waves.

What unfolded in Mumbai today must come as a major relief to the UPA-2 that has been forced to eat lot of grass by Team Anna and the swelling it drew earlier. Today, UPA camp must be celebrating and obviously mourning in Anna’s camp but they have put up a volte-face to avoid embarrassment. In the early morning, a handful of people, though not a crowd, shouted against Team Anna and their campaign. While some shouted ‘Anna Murdabad, others held black flags crying that he had disrespected the Indian Parliament again and again. They even demanded that corporate sector be included in the Jan Lokpal bill if Team Anna is serious about it.

As someone with twitter handle primaveron, wrote on group #TeamAnnaissham: “Anna hazare as my phone keeps auto-correcting is Anna Hazard! Senile moron being used like a pawn by Kejriwal and Co.” This is not just an isolated reaction; hundreds of posts on social networking sites have been doing rounds. Now people have protested on the streets without fearing to get beaten by Anna supporters and the sparse crowd at MMRDA ground could point to a new phenomenon. Is Anna going overboard? Many people had asked the question and are other team members using the 74-year-old activist.

Continuing with his strange observations, Anna claimed that he didn’t marry so that he could serve the society and that he doesn’t know the names of his brother’s children. On a lighter note, how can a person serve a society when he doesn’t bore well for his immediate family? Here I take liberty of using his quote from his speech today. “At some point then, the public will teach you (the government) a lesson.  Just now, the government feels it is untouchable. There are elections in a few states, but what will they do to us at the national level (is what the government thinks). But in these five states that are voting, we will campaign against the government. You have not seen what people power is. It is more powerful than Parliament,” he told the gathering.

Somewhere it gives an impression that they don’t want the Lokpal bill to be passed and even if it is passed, they need to keep the pot burning so that they can keep opposing the government. Their goal is not the end of corruption but the regime change, one is forced to believe. Today’s events have shown that he doesn’t enjoy the mandate of people in the fight against corruption like he did in past.