Indian govt faces a united opposition over Hazare issue

The arrest of leading anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare has had the effect of uniting the entire opposition burying their ideological differences, albeit temporarily.
The opposition parties BJP, the Left, Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which incidentally is an ally of Congress-led UPA, Telugu Desam Party, coordinated their floor strategy in the two Houses of Parliament on Tuesday as they accused the government of “violating the democratic rights” and demanded the release of Hazare.
For the first time, BJP leaders shared a platform with RJD and SP leaders to finalize a game-plan to be adopted in Parliament.
Not that the opposition parties agree with all the demands made by Hazare and his team of civil society activists like including the prime minister, the higher judiciary and actions of lawmakers inside Parliament to be included in a new law for setting up an anti-corruption ombudsman.
The new ombudsman is tasked with investigating and prosecuting politicians and bureaucrats on corruption, but Hazare wants the prime minister and higher judiciary to come under scrutiny.
But the arrest of Hazare, even before he could reach the site of his proposed anti-graft hunger strike, brought the opposition on a single platform to condemn the act.
Main opposition BJP clearly did not want to miss out on the opportunity to rally the entire opposition against the government.
It was decided at that meeting that a demand should be made that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh make a statement in Parliament on the arrest of Hazare. Singh did make the statement yesterday.
Realizing that there are differences among opposition parties on the nitty gritty of a new anti-corruption legislation, the parties focussed on the consensus point which was that the right to peaceful protest by Hazare cannot be violated.
The developments in the past few days involving Hazare also saw the infamous Emergency, imposed by the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi between June 25, 1975, and March 21, 1977, making a comeback in the discourse of opposition parties.
During the Emergency, fundamental rights of the people were suspended by the then government faced with anti-government protests spearheaded by late Jaiprakash Narayan on the twin issues of corruption and inflation. The Indira Gandhi government was voted out of power in parliamentary elections held in 1977.