Will Anna Hazare Fade Away?
He has become the toast of the town, saviour of the masses, scourge of the corrupted and the catalyst of the latest revolution in India’s historic kitty. This dogged septuagenarian has shaken every politician out of his societal stupor eclipsed by his egotistic perambulations. Arundati Roy, Mahesh Bhatt and the intellectual ilk may question his credentials and modus operandi, but the sheer number of his diehard fans and devotees has far exceeded that of any other person living: never had anyone in history had so many contemporaries supporting and defending him or her; nor will ever be.
Here is an iconoclast who cannot wait for any routine parliamentary procedures to commence the discussion on his pet project the Lokpal bill. In semblance to the saying “if the bhakt cannot go to Eshwar’s portals, let Eshwar come to the bhakt’s threshold”, since this ironman cannot wait for his turn at the parliament to deliberate upon his project, the parliament has to suspend every activity to mull over his assignment forthwith. The recent episode proved that the government or parliamentarians can brook no procrastination, except at the cost of endangering his fragile health and thereby incurring the wrath of millions.
What makes this apparently simple diminutive man clad in home-spun khadi so potent? What is it in this yokel from Ralegan Siddhi that has made the mighty fall at his feet of clay? How is it that millions of Indians sporting a Gandhi cap identify themselves with him and scream their throats out: I AM ANNA?
BECAUSE this chubby-cheeked ‘maha-atma’, enjoying his second childhood in the last leg of his earthly sojourn has put his own life at stake so as to cleanse the Indian society of corruption! Because the entire population of India is fed up of the corrupt practices of the government ministers, bureaucrats, police officials and the rest of the government paraphernalia.
Just as Gandhiji perfected his form of satyagraha in South Africa before taking on the mission to India, Anna Hazare too began at his village Ralegaon Siddhi, Ahmad Nagar district, Maharashtra. He motivated his village people not to grease the palms of government officials for discharging their duty of serving the common people. Later he enlarged the scope to encompass the state of Maharashtra. With people’s support he succeeded in uprooting many ministers in the state, thereby antagonizing the high and mighty among the political class.
ANNA HAZARE WILL NEVER FADE because success never went to his head. On his retirement from the Indian Army he gave away his entire savings to charity to buld wells and dharamshalas or free rest houses for pilgrims. Now despite his monumental successes at various levels he still lives in a small room in a dharamsnala he himself had built.
ANNA HAZARE WILL NEVER FADE because Anna is unsurpassed in somatic as well as mental tenacity. After three days of his fast on his release from gaol, much to the shame and chagrin of his escorts, he sprinted his way to Ramlila Maidan when it began to drizzle, Again, when every ‘Anna’ in India was on tenterhooks as Hazare’s fast entered the 10th day and 11th day, and even as some protesters who were fasting in solidarity with Anna in different pars of India were collapsing Anna still had the strength to address the gathering, as against his will and wont. He could accomplish this feat because, as he said, the youth supplied to him an inexhaustible fund of energy.
ANNA HAZARE WILL NEVER FADE for his nerves of steel that is not flustered by difficult situations. Even as he concluded his 13-day long fast he did not leave before declaring that his fight against corruption was just kept in suspended animation and that it would resume forthwith if situation demanded it. Moreover, the fighter that he is, he was not carried on a stretcher even after such a long fast lasting nearly a fortnight. The doctors attending him called it nothing short of a miracle and Anna’s steely will power.
Yet this was not the first time that death accosted him. He had faced death several times in the past too and survived. In the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965 while he was driving a truck laden with essential supplies to the border posts a couple of fighter jets of the Pakistan Air Force swooped on the convoy. As Anna applied brakes at high speed his heavy vehicle skidded and rolled into a ditch. That day he had stared death in the face twice.
ANNA HAZARE WILL NEVER FADE thanks to the pristine image and the identity that he has created among the middle class. Despite alleging that Anna was steeped in corruption from head to foot, Tewari had to eat crow soon after.
Coming to the corruption factor: first the good news: a recent study has revealed that Indian deposits in Swiss banks have exhibited a declining trend. Now the shocker: the deposits in Swiss banks in the year 2010 amounted to a whopping $ 2.5 billion! An unconfirmed report estimates that at least Rs 1456 lakh crores of Indian moneys are stashed away in these banks! If proved true, imagine what can be done with this mind-boggling amount! India might emerge as the No. 1 country in the world financially and on an average about 60000 crores can be given to each district for its development, which means bestowing as much purchasing power on the Indian population.
Corruption has become institutionalized in India. For example, many people go to driving schools to get licenses because they know that half the fee paid to these schools is used to grease the palms of RTO officials. Or take the case of many popular temples that sell ‘tokens’ to the moneyed to ‘jump the queue’? But how many consider these corruption and are ready to abandon such systems?
It is common knowledge that commissions and judicial enquiries and the like are established in India only to tranquilize the indignation of the public. These are instituted merely to hoodwink the masses. The corrupt officials and politicians almost always manage to salvage their chameleon like pseudo-faces.
Although the public is fed up with the whole system, the political entity has managed to smother this concern and anguish by scuttling the Lokpal bill a number of times. Now that the bill is going to be discussed and passed without doubt, the credit for the same should go to Shri Anna Hazare alone. This saintly figure is fighting corruption not for his own benefit but the billion-odd Indians. This man in the last lap of his life has no personal agenda or benefit in this at all. This single pure disinterested act of Anna alone suffices to elevate him to the pedestal of the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Buddha. If the Lokpal bill as Anna has envisaged gets passed there will be more accountability among every Indian leader and the beneficiaries will be the nation and especially the poorest of the poor. Just as the Almighty had sent a Mahatma when Indian independence struggle was struggling to fight with one voice, now at this critical juncture when India has lost its face in the world arena due to rampant corruption as revealed by the several scams surfacing the nation at regular intervals, especially the mother of all scams, the 2G scam, the same Omnipotent has come down to the earth to salvage the remaining pride of India and cause a political and moral revolution.
Never…ever…
M Dominic Arivarasu
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