Anna Hazare and the Rest of India !

Anna Hazare, the ex-indian military jawan and now an ascetic and crusader against social evils, hailing from a little known hamlet of the Indian state of Maharashtra has been getting attention of the media and the people for quite some time, except perhaps the arrogant politicians and the bureaucrats. 

For quite some time the Indian politicians have been confident in their power to gather mobs and crowds for any purpose connected to show off their popularity. They knew very well how they did it. They had the party workers on their rolls . At a short notice they were capable of getting a crowd for meetings, bandhs, processions and what not. They pretty knew very well how much money it costed. No one ever did any thing without any 'fayada' or benefit for self.

To get into politics and become a leader of some say, you need popularity. And popularity cannot come overnight. You have to do many good and bad things and act and over act to gain popularity. Politics therefore is not something the good people can try out. Over the years, the Indian political scene has evolved certain theories of its own.

To remain in politics you have to keep your popularity intact. To keep the popularity intact, you need money. Money in real hard cash to buy out the people who helped in showing off the 'popularity'. Now from where does such huge money comes from. That money has to be made from the power and authority that is gained through playing politics. 

To win an election huge amounts of money is needed especially to gain popularity . Why any one should spend millions of rupees to get elected as an MP or MLA unless there is a potential for recovering much more than he or she had spend initially?

The rule books do not allow you to recover your money. That has to be done by covert methods. All those covert methods in which authority is used to amass money for personal coffers is called corruption.

Practising corruption has its own risks. To overcome the risks you need more money and perhaps more power. Thus a vicious circle developed over the years in India. Corruption causing more and more corruption. Half hearted efforts to hoodwink the common man lead to more corruption.

For the public, there was no option. No options to come out of it. Only option left was to be in it. The candidates of the political parties they knew would do no good for them. But yet they had to elect and select from the list available to them. Even when over two-third did not vote, some one would win. To be called their democratically elected representative!

Indians fumed and cursed their fate. Those in power teased and ridiculed them. With total disregard to their feelings and with impunity.

So when Anna and his team declared their intentions to initiate a peaceful protest against corruption, those in power never imagined that the people would ever dare to come out of their homes braving the odds. Anna and those with him knew that those in power are capable of unleashing violence over them with the help of those 'custodians of the law'.  

But the 'August Kranti 2011' of India taking place after 64 years after the successful independence struggle of 1947 under Mahatma Gandhi, surprised all, including Hazare himself. He would have never imagined that the Indian public would show such a solidarity and support !

Each passing day after Anna began his 'Anshan' or fasting, those in power naturally thought that he would give up in one or two days. At least that was what the neo politicians all thought about 'satyagraha'. They could perhaps never ever assess the strength of the will of an ascetic!

So Anna Hazare showed that strength to all- to his enemies and to his supporters at the same time.

Even the most stone-hearted thug also would have a second thought by seeing the feelings of the people and the determination of a simple man like this.

But the grave inaction of those in the government preaching Gandhism gave surprised even those who have not taken any sides.

Such is the greed for clinging on to power and the pleasure of lynching the millions who had no direct  power!

Now India has Anna at the centre with powerful and powerless Indians at both ends! 

But Anna Hazare also has a human mind with its weaknesses and strengths. There is no guarantee that those weaknesses would some day overtake his strengths. It has happened with many in the past.

Let us watch and see.

[For More reading on corruption in India visit the BewareIndia Website]

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