Hyderabad: The National Alliance of People’s Movement (NAPM) organised a round table on Saturday to discuss the decision of Team Anna to float a political party, the subsequent reactions that were expressed by various people and organizations, and the role of civil society in tackling corruption.

The meeting opined that the civil society movements should impact the system and the electoral process to control corruption. They felt that Anna’s movement’s success or failure should not be attributed to the entire civil society. 

The civil society had a vast definition. It was not just a person or a group, it could be any number of groups or individuals working for public causes. Given the situation of the country, politically, economically and socially, the people’s movements should vigorously work to empower people to achieve the targeted goals regarding various issues prevailing in the country, the speakers at the round table felt.

They said the civil society groups would continue to strive for a strong Lok Pal and would take up any public issue. It should impact the system and the electoral process from where the malaise of corruption was being produced.

The speakers felt unless the root cause of ‘corruption in elections’ was addressed, there would not be a long term change or solution. The speakers further said, “We will support any new initiative to combat corruption. We believe that the political, economic systems have to be cleansed to bring about long term impact.”

By saying, Anna’s movement had failed, it was being attributed that the whole civil society had failed. Many civil society representatives and youth have had deliberated on the issue of corruption and on ways to curtail it through civil society activism.

Among those who participated in the round table were B Ramakrishnam Raju (convener, NAPM-AP), Dr Rao Chelikani (U-FERWAS), T L Narsimha Rao (co-ordinator, Lok Satta organisation), Uppala Gopala Rao (Praja Alochana Vedika), Garimella Narayana (founder member, NAPM), Saraswati Kavula and Sashank Rajwadi (NAPM-AP) and many other concerned citizens and IAC members.

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