An Alternate Take

With the ongoing Anna Hazare Prison drama, I just decided to step back a bit and try to see the same issue from the government/Congress party's point of view. Let me play the Devil's Advocate here for a moment and see why is The Congress Party hell bent in not letting Hazare continue his protest, forget acting on it.

1. An obvious reason is the toll on the image of this government. There is already a general opinion that this government is not doing enough for the "aam aadmi" as they claim. Also there were so many corruptions and scandals, I think they have run out of excuses and executives. They made a mistake once of not tabling a strong Lokpal Bill, now they dont have a choice other than defending it. Elections are still a long way to go, but still if they relent now, it might prove deterrent in the coming days. In simple terms they dont have a choice other than to thwart this protest and create a 'Strong Govt' image
2. Setting a bad precedent. This definitely is a plausible reason, considering the fact that if the government steps down from its position today, the public will see perceive this as a defeat to the Govt. The message conveyed will be "the govt can be forced to act on something if a protest at this scale happens". In India we dont need a reason to gather people and protest, vile politicians can use this avenue as an mode to show their clout or force government to work against the people's interest. This is a genuinely unsavory route which cannot be entirely ruled out and public will be the ultimate losers. So a genuine reason for the government to stop the protesters at the bigger interest of public well being or it can called protection against unfair protests.
3. To show who is the 'Boss'? There is no reason why the government shouldn't act like a big brother here. It is in its second term and has all the possible resources it can have to muzzle this protest. Rather than a why here I think it would have been a Why Not?

I could just come up with three reasons why the government is acting this way. Except for the second one, I think the first and third are just examples of arrogance and total lack of sensitivity to people issues. In my honest opinion the second reason would not have even crossed their minds. I think they are more baffled at why every other major political parties is rallying along with Hazare when ideally they should be with the government to prevent a strong anti corruption bill. I think the government is having wild swings between sensibility and insanity