If Lokpal isn't cleared March will see conflict: Kiran Bedi

For many the New Year offers the beguiling possibility of transformation, a hope that things will improve, circumstances will change and that people will achieve new purpose and greater heights.

But if you are a member of the India Against Corruption movement then 2012 has started with this existential question which is, 'is 2012 as good as it gets?' That's because the anticorruption crusade lead by Anna Hazare, which swept the nations imagination all through 2011, ended the year seeming to have lost both support and steam. Its opponents would say that the movement is in its death-throws.

CNBC-TV18's Anuradha Sengupta caught up with Kiran Bedi, member of India Against Corruption (IAC) to talk to her about where the movement goes from here.

Below is the edited transcript of her interview on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying videos.

Q: Is it fair to say that the existential question before the movement is where do we go from here at the start of this year?

A: March should see the passing of the Jan Lokpal Bill or an effective Lokpal Bill or it will see huge conflict. The one, which has been passed by the Lok Sabha, is a very weak bill. That's not what people agitated for.

We didn't agitate for creating jobs and weak Lokpal. We agitated for an effective Lokpal. Now Rajya Sabha is amending to make it effective. So, Lok Sabha has passed a weak bill, Rajya Sabha is wearing to pass an effective bill. So, you could see a huge conflict, you might see a historic joint session. So, March is going to be exciting as a budget session, budget plus Lokpal.

Q: What happens in the upcoming state elections? Does India Against Corruption movement campaigns against the Congress because that is what Anna had said finally at the Mumbai rally?

A: If it was going to be a campaign, it would have been campaign against any political party which was not for a strong Lokpal Bill. So, it's not Congress alone. It was any political party.

The Congress stood out because Congress is the party in power because it engineers, it introduces, it has numbers to pass as it did. It did bulldoze its weight in the Lok Sabha, but what happened in the Rajya Sabha.

Had Anna been on the campaign trail and we had all been with him, we would have informed people what happened in the Lokpal Bill. We would have left it to the judgment of the voter to decide now who do you want to vote for. If you still wish to vote for people who had not supported you for Lokpal, it's your choice.

Q: Am I right if I say that today what you are saying and the way you are saying it is different from what was being said as late as December, less than two weeks ago?

A: I do not know whether you see a difference or not. But what is consistent about is that political party in power has the power to change, to introduce and to force things through. That's all that's consistent. It happens to be Congress, it could have been any other party. So, this movement is not anti-a political party. It is for responsibility of the party in power to drive the change. It remains that way.

Q: Do you feel in hindsight, given that we are talking in the New Year and a fresh start, that the fact that a lot of people started seeing the movement as anti-a party in this case the ruling party- the Congress? Do you think that was something that has harmed the movement or damaged the movement where people's perceptions are concerned?

A: That's a perception which drew. But that was not it. We could have said the party in power and that's undeniable. Who introduces the bill, who drafts the bill? Not the opposition, it's always the party in power. If it's different party, now who brought in the Uttarakhand Jan Lokpal Bill? It was the BJP and we mentioned BJP, it happens to be BJP. That doesn't mean we are for BJP.

When it says party in power in the centre, that doesn't mean we are against the Congress. We are talking about party in power which happens to be in power, a party in power. In Uttarakhand, it was BJP. When we mentioned that the BJP has brought in a kind of bill exactly the kind which the state actually needed. We are not a political group. We are all coming from activism which was truly non-political all along.

Q: If this movement has to gather steam and achieve it's goal, which is that Lokpal Bill, how do you ensure that this perception that you are not against a political party and you don't have an agenda and you are not a front for the opposition party? How do you get rid of this perception because it must bother you isn't it?

A: It doesn't really bother us because that's what we are and it hasn't really bothered. We have remained consistent, we have said according to a situation what needed to be said. Where we needed to be blunt, we were blunt, where we needed to be explaining we were explaining. We have been consistent and we have been our authentic selves.

You attribute a colour to us so be it, but we continue to say we are a tricolor. You say no you are more of saffron, no you are more of green, you are more of white, well that's your perception. We are not in the defensive block to continue to act because our object is to go on with the movement in the manner which that situation needs. Now, at the moment, if a situation needs consolidation, if at the moment a situation needs voter awareness, if at the moment needs voluntary training that's what it is. So, we are not being driven by external perceptions, we are self driven.

For complete interview, watch the videos.