CONFUSION rather than clarity prevails on the political scene as the year comes to an end. There will be many regrets all around that this was a situation which could have been avoided…. In hindsight, the government seems to have allowed extraneous circumstances to induce a needless degree of panic. True, corruption scandals had eroded its credibility considerably, starting from the Commonwealth Games to the 2G issue. But this did not mean that it should have directly involved itself in engaging with anti-corruption crusaders like Anna Hazare … it could have employed suitable interlocutors to interact with people like Mr Hazare and his team for a start.

Perhaps it could have begun talks with Team Anna through certain members of the National Advisory Council who have a credible reputation.…[T]he whole approach could have been that of incremental steps rather than immediately putting Team Anna on a par with elected representatives…. If it had remained one step removed, the government could have first ascertained the points of convergence and divergence and then worked out approaches on how to tackle these. After all, in contentious cases like Kashmir and Telangana, senior ministers did not directly engage themselves in dialogue, rather emissaries opened the batting….

The mistake in putting Team Anna on a par with those in government led to the former believing that it could call the shots.

The subsequent intransigence on the part of the anti-corruption crusaders led to the government taking ad hoc steps, most of them detrimental to its image. The obvious one was arresting Mr Hazare. …As the new year begins, let us hope that forethought rather than afterthought will become the hallmark of governance. Now that is a thought that we might all hold on to in the hope of a more calm 2012. — (Dec 31)