Did Democracy really Win??

I have been closely monitoring (or was rather forced to watch by the Media, Facebook friends) the whole Anna Hazare episode that rocked the government and (thankfully) raised a sense of awareness in the masses about the cancer of corruption in our society. But I have a little counter view to this whole incident and would like to share that here. Sometimes a sense of unbridled virtue can also subvert democracy. The agitation by civil society activists over the Jan Lokpal Bill is a reminder of this uncomfortable truth. There is a great deal of justified consternation over corruption. The obduracy of the political leadership is testing the patience of citizens. But the movement behind the Jan Lokpal Bill has crossed the lines of reasonableness and democratic process. It is premised on an institutional imagination that is at best naïve; at worst subversive of representative democracy. Fast until death (Aamaran Anshan) is a purely personal and moral decision for an individual to recourse to a political , social or even personal issue that is grave enough to be highlighted and protested upon. But in a constitutionally established and functional democracy, its an inherent acceptance of the system failure to resort to such coercive moral powers as the fast is. So, the question comes to mind...

Did democracy really win???

Satyagraha was always considered as a sword with twin edges by the great person who used it as his main weapon, the Mahatma. He always cautioned the civil society against using this as a mean of black-mailing the established democracy. What Anna did was certainly for a noble cause (and no doubts on that), and thats the reason he was able to garner support of the masses. But the means used were not what are needed for a healthy democracy. If it was an autocratic rule and anarchy then its understandable to follow these means. But I still strongly believe that the nation should show faith into undoubtedly the biggest weapon in their hands....the FRANCHISE. If the public that rose to the occassion in showing solidarity to this cause, can also come out in equal or more strength on the day we decide who will rule us, the picture would certainly glimmer with hope. On the other hand corruption will not stop there, because the root cause is certainly not at the politicians level. Each of us contribute to it in a manner which takes ominous proportions overall. The day we stop this pipeline, our life will certainly be miserable...but then a corruption free nation will come at a price.