Hazare khwahishen aisee
his one is a different Anna from the ones the Indian middle class has grown up on — yes, he is the big boss but not in the manner that the Bollywood’s larger than life Annas (bhai logs from down South) have been down the ages.
In Hazare, we have an Anna fighting for the right cause and getting an above board support from across India. Strangely however, those who have so spontaneously extended support to this long awaited cause seeking an audience are the very same people who have in their big and small ways given fillip to the issue of corruption.
Let’s start with the corporates extending support to Anna. Corruption at highest places is courtesy these very corporates for whom oiling the machinery has become a necessary fineart. From hiring dubious lobbyists, to finding company moles in the system to according fantastic freebies to babus, to being convinced that the easiest way to get their businesses going is to have their money and men as spokes in the wheels of governance — they have done, and will continue to do everything, that serves their business interest well and fast. That’s the kind of corruption Anna is fighting against even though his demand for now looks to be limited to a Lokpal Bill.
Then there is the political class which has recently become so maligned in public mind that it has become synonymous with corruption. Anna’s inner circle has successfully managed to keep the politicos away, be it people like Uma Bharati who are looking for a desperate return into the halo of power, or Om Prakash Chautala who looks entirely mismatched with the issue.
As politicians go, the collective need for them to clean up their act is so in their face that reminders like Anna’s current movement are hardly needed and will seldom be followed, considering the exigencies of politicking which, for now, are eons away from clean or committed governance. The Congress-led Government has been in the eye of scandals for a pretty long time now and the quicksand is only gathering around its feet. From one scam to another, the damage control department of the UPA is as burnt out as the continuously in the middle cricketers are according to man of the moment MS Dhoni. To have an Anna wave in the midst of such hectic scheduling by the party’s event managers is near fatal, or as they may say, the last straw in their mess.
And now, coming to the biggest support structure of Anna’s fast — the common man. Yes, here the spontaneity is remarkable, and more than welcome. However, it also points to the fact that the Indian public is spilling over with daily living hazards — the bakhsish brigade has them by the scruff of their collar and they insist that they have been giving in to only be able to live peacefully.
From the puny little clerk on a public department’s table to even the munshi in court, to the peon who can get a file moving from one to the other dusty table, everyone works for those no longer under the table notes — notes that the common man provides easily to get the job done. Isn’t that the biggest bogey of corruption — paying for services that need to come free and as a matter of right?
According to the not so recent Supreme Court ruling, the graft giver is more liable than the bribe taker but the conviction rate here is lower even than the much maligned rape conviction rate of 0.02 per cent. How Anna will clean up this collective dirt in the mindset which genuinely believes that the cost of cleaning up corruption is higher than a clean society, will be interesting to know.
But till then, a word on mass movements like the one that has gathered around this upright, unrelenting crusader called Anna Hazare. For one, it is heartening to see the surge against an issue which has co-existed with Independent India from the day the free nation had its first tryst with destiny.
From Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh — the so-called squeaky clean political honcho has lived and flowered in the corrupt mound of mess around him. Now that the public has started to get together impromptu against this political, social and psychological predator of goodness, there seems to be one hope at least — that this present surge has potential to turn into a revolution if our political class does not clean up sincerely instead of just getting into a tizzy to tide over and curb present movements.
Just for a reminder, this decade has grown into a decade of public movements around the globe. From Egypt, where it all started against a benevolent monarch in Hosni Mubarak, to Libya where it is still raging against a not-at-all benevolent dictator in Gaddafi, to Saudi Arabia where the murmurs have begun against the royalty, to India where it is happening democratically though on a much smaller scale, public scrutiny will hopefully become the single most potent weapon to curb political waywardness. From the candle-lights for Jessica Lall to the Gateway of India build-up post 26/11, to 4.5 million Twitter hits for a 70 plus Gandhian activist with no political agenda — there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel.
And that’s the power of real life Anna — the mess sorter with only one ideology — that of honesty, that of the long forgotten Gandhian tool — the satyagraha.
Source: Sunday Pioneer, April 10, 2011
In Hazare, we have an Anna fighting for the right cause and getting an above board support from across India. Strangely however, those who have so spontaneously extended support to this long awaited cause seeking an audience are the very same people who have in their big and small ways given fillip to the issue of corruption.
Let’s start with the corporates extending support to Anna. Corruption at highest places is courtesy these very corporates for whom oiling the machinery has become a necessary fineart. From hiring dubious lobbyists, to finding company moles in the system to according fantastic freebies to babus, to being convinced that the easiest way to get their businesses going is to have their money and men as spokes in the wheels of governance — they have done, and will continue to do everything, that serves their business interest well and fast. That’s the kind of corruption Anna is fighting against even though his demand for now looks to be limited to a Lokpal Bill.
Then there is the political class which has recently become so maligned in public mind that it has become synonymous with corruption. Anna’s inner circle has successfully managed to keep the politicos away, be it people like Uma Bharati who are looking for a desperate return into the halo of power, or Om Prakash Chautala who looks entirely mismatched with the issue.
As politicians go, the collective need for them to clean up their act is so in their face that reminders like Anna’s current movement are hardly needed and will seldom be followed, considering the exigencies of politicking which, for now, are eons away from clean or committed governance. The Congress-led Government has been in the eye of scandals for a pretty long time now and the quicksand is only gathering around its feet. From one scam to another, the damage control department of the UPA is as burnt out as the continuously in the middle cricketers are according to man of the moment MS Dhoni. To have an Anna wave in the midst of such hectic scheduling by the party’s event managers is near fatal, or as they may say, the last straw in their mess.
And now, coming to the biggest support structure of Anna’s fast — the common man. Yes, here the spontaneity is remarkable, and more than welcome. However, it also points to the fact that the Indian public is spilling over with daily living hazards — the bakhsish brigade has them by the scruff of their collar and they insist that they have been giving in to only be able to live peacefully.
From the puny little clerk on a public department’s table to even the munshi in court, to the peon who can get a file moving from one to the other dusty table, everyone works for those no longer under the table notes — notes that the common man provides easily to get the job done. Isn’t that the biggest bogey of corruption — paying for services that need to come free and as a matter of right?
According to the not so recent Supreme Court ruling, the graft giver is more liable than the bribe taker but the conviction rate here is lower even than the much maligned rape conviction rate of 0.02 per cent. How Anna will clean up this collective dirt in the mindset which genuinely believes that the cost of cleaning up corruption is higher than a clean society, will be interesting to know.
But till then, a word on mass movements like the one that has gathered around this upright, unrelenting crusader called Anna Hazare. For one, it is heartening to see the surge against an issue which has co-existed with Independent India from the day the free nation had its first tryst with destiny.
From Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh — the so-called squeaky clean political honcho has lived and flowered in the corrupt mound of mess around him. Now that the public has started to get together impromptu against this political, social and psychological predator of goodness, there seems to be one hope at least — that this present surge has potential to turn into a revolution if our political class does not clean up sincerely instead of just getting into a tizzy to tide over and curb present movements.
Just for a reminder, this decade has grown into a decade of public movements around the globe. From Egypt, where it all started against a benevolent monarch in Hosni Mubarak, to Libya where it is still raging against a not-at-all benevolent dictator in Gaddafi, to Saudi Arabia where the murmurs have begun against the royalty, to India where it is happening democratically though on a much smaller scale, public scrutiny will hopefully become the single most potent weapon to curb political waywardness. From the candle-lights for Jessica Lall to the Gateway of India build-up post 26/11, to 4.5 million Twitter hits for a 70 plus Gandhian activist with no political agenda — there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel.
And that’s the power of real life Anna — the mess sorter with only one ideology — that of honesty, that of the long forgotten Gandhian tool — the satyagraha.
Source: Sunday Pioneer, April 10, 2011
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