Team Anna methods draw criticism at meet

Dec 13, 2011 |

Age Corespondent

New Delhi

Eminent sociologists pulled up Team Anna and took a dig at the anti-corruption movement being led by social activist Anna Hazare. Sociologists from all over the country have gathered for a three-day All India Sociological Conference at

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) here. The conference started on Sunday.
While arguing for the expression of discontent, Professor Andre Beteille from Delhi School of Economics slammed Team Anna for unnecessary targeting the government.
“The manner in which discontent should be expressed is important. The grammar of Team Anna’s civil disobedience movement is riddled with overarching assumptions and unnecessary ridicule, which obviously do not have any rational basis,” Professor Andre Beteille said, adding that the movement is eroding faith in democratic institutions and hampering their functioning.
Terming the demand for inclusion of the “Right to Recall” as preposterous, he said that it possibly cannot restore order in a society in which constitutional mandate is circumscribed around equality and the structural reality is based on a highly stratified and pervasively unequal social order.
However, another eminent sociologist Professor K.L. Sharma backed Team Anna and explained the importance of civil society and its role in a successful democracy.

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