Anna Hazare, India Against Corruption, and the Political System: A New Beginning

Image: BBC

Finally, it has happened. The most eagerly awaited, the most dreaded and the most unexpected, have all happened in a flash. It was just when nothing remained but a glimmer of hope, when all was forgotten but a few annual rituals and public holidays, when the constitutional system, the reckless youth and the rotting middle class were all written off, when the status quo came to be taken as the perpetual reality, and when democracy verged on the anarchy, the history of non-violence and the culture of Satyagraha that were relegated to museums and history books, were brought back to life by a movement in all its prowess, in a show of strength of dimensions beyond imagination.

It was a long forgotten folklore that the Parliament existed for its people. It was as if the systems invented to serve the humans, developed their own 'Artificial Intelligence' and started enslaving their masters. And the masters were beaten to believe that they were the slaves, and that the machines were designed to rule over them. It was the stuff that Matrix and the Terminator are made of. The political class assumed supremacy, and the citizens became their subservient servants. While the ruling class enjoyed their lives, the people were kept in the dark, blind-folded. And the bureaucrats were able to get away with it all. The machines made the rules in their own favour - and broke them at their own will. And it became the way of life, and the way things worked in here. And, as is typical, the youth were reckless, the elite were careless, and the middle class, hopeless. When corruption began to rule, the people were left searching for a leader. As corruption spread far, deep and wide from within, the system was left with a hollow core - and the vacuum was felt all around. People knew Mahatma Gandhi was History - and accepted that the modern age was all about frustration and desperation. 

APJ Abdul Kalam was a ray of hope in a dark cloud with no silver lining. But he was in a system that showed no mercy to the exceptional. When Mumbai came under attack, it was as if the nerves had transmitted a weak signal in a monster in deep slumber. Some sparks here and there, and a few days later, it was business as usual. When Anna Hazare was in the news initially, the news channels found it an opportunity to flash something short of a sensation. And no pundit, back then, would have predicted him, an ageing, worthless man with nothing to lose, to become a brand to reckon with, and to weave a dream in every Indian's eyes. But what has transpired when a simple man put himself on the line and threatened to give his life - virtually his only possession - away, for a cause that he believed in, was unbelievable. The Parliament was forced to do its duty. The law makers were forced to draft the rules. The politicians were forced to go to work. Every bureaucrat was forced to turn back, sit up and take notice - with alarming concern, noting that this time, people were putting him under the scanner. For the first time in a long while, corruption started seeming to be a dirty word!

There are many signals that the unprecedented event in Free India has sent across to all quarters of the social and political scheme. And every actor in the play would be taking home their own lessons from the famed Ramlila Maidan, or Ramlila grounds, which the poor patriot, Anna Hazare, had made his home of late. And he did have more than his share of visitors to his new home. Hectic parleys, discussions and debates, heated altercations, arguments, accusations, they all had to give way when a protest turned into a movement like never before. 

Some may call it revolutionary, some may baulk at it as setting a dangerous precedent in arm-twisting the big brother into action, and some may hate Anna Hazare with all of their lives' assets and properties. This is the success of an impeccable person with his heart full of willpower and literally nothing to lose in life, and of branding a campaign and coordinating it to precision, aimed at making the system take notice and respond. However, there is virtually anything that Team Anna could make of what is nothing but its initial break through. The nation may be filled with Euphoria, celebrating what they may see as their victory over the oppressors. But what the team makes out of the very beginnings of a movement, is entirely up to the team that made this happen. With Anna mentioning of Electoral Reforms even as the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, had just initiated the debate on Lokpal Bill, the bureaucrats may have a hard time going to sleep peacefully, for the first time in a long while. 

The reality, however, is that the problem has just got its share of attention. And the problem runs much deeper than what it may ever seem from the outside. The celebrations mark the beginning of a new phase in the Indian political history, but change is still at a distant horizon. It would be naive to think that what flew out of the Pandora's box would creep back grudgingly into it with the stroke of a legislation or with the coming of age of an apolitical system called the civil society. The common man, about whom this has all been about, is still out there in the fields and along the vast country side, reading about and discussing Anna Hazare, and counting his hard earned daily wages, as he gets ready to cast his vote to the political party that would pay him the most or would gift him the goodies. To him or her, New Delhi is a different world, and Anna Hazare could well end up to be someone who adamantly refused to eat for two weeks while sitting in the open grounds. Without the last citizen in the queue educated, informed and empowered to deal with their life on their own terms, the political machinery, with its artificial intelligence that it has now got used to, would take every opportunity to strike back - with vengeance.

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Corruption in India, Lokpal Bill and Mahatma Gandhi 
Anna Hazare: Lokpal Bill and Beyond
Anna Hazare, Indians and the Political Class: A Reality Check

It Was Midnight Alright - But Was it Freedom?

When The Taj was taken control of, besieged by militants who fought round the clock slaughtering civilians, when there was bloody carnage at CST where passengers commuting and waiting for trains were shot down like flies and trampled upon like worms, left to soak in their own blood on the platforms, as those armed men fired at random and at will at anyone who was destined to stray in their paths, all we could do, the majority of Indians who were shell shocked as we stayed glued to our television sets, was to watch. Then, our shock gave way to grief and anger – anger that was directed towards our elected representatives who had left us all crying and dying, as they stay protected in the safety of tight security.

There was outrage, there were public outcries that questioned leaders in their faces, celebrities hit out at the administration and the government and people gathered at city centres, at the marine drive, at clubs and associations to discuss and debate what had just hit them out of nowhere. There were commentaries that India had awakened yet again, this time from parliamentary squabbles and dirty politics and cross border terrorisms that had come to be its lullabies.

All of that, is now history. And it’s business as usual again. The status quo stays where it always stood. While everything in the world is supposed to change every moment, some things never seem to change at all. Such things, as the nonchalant chores of the middleclass Indian, as the television channels that are as busy as ever making reality shows, as filmmakers who keep up their entertainment values, as writers who advocate everything under the sun, as scamsters who are busy inventing new ways to mint money, as cricketers who are never tired of defeats and endorsements, as businessmen who are always on the move, strategising, and as politicians who pay their ritualistic homage to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the lawyer who set us all free.

Or, are we free yet?

Where Anarchy is better than Democracy!

We all know of how bad the boys behaved out there in the Parliament. And if they could put up such a show to be telecast live, one could imagine how much of an activity must have gone on behind the scenes. Discussions, disagreements, conspiracies, bribes, body shopping, mind games, barter exchanges . . . so much planning, so many suitcases of currencies, so many thugs involved . . . intricacies, intimidations, bargains . . . whewww . . . must have been quite a hectic period for all our neighbourhood politicians.

But coming to think of these guys who claim to be representing us, the humble law-abiding and law-breaking citizens and netizens, it makes one exclaim how truly they live up to the term "Elected Representatives"! I mean, do they really represent the sentiments of the senseless voters who made them Kings? Talk of this whole worthless, stupid, obnoxious episode of "No Trust" motion. I, as a citizen who plays a role in putting these mindless vacuum's amidst the power centres, ask my representatives one simple question: When did I ask you to move such a motion against a Government that I elected? Did I ask for instability in governance at this point in time?

If I appoint my representative to present my organisation to my client, I would kick his backside if he misbehaves in the client's place. And what have these guys done? They have been indulging in "Insider Trading", "Horse Trading", "Ass Trading"and what not! I would want to dismiss my whole organisation at one go! I can run my show without any of them. I would rather be a "One Man Show" than hiring goonda's for my team!

And what's with those numbers, my revered writers of the Constitution? Were your minds out of place when you put those clauses there? One number up, he wins; one number down, he loses. Two guys abstain, the nation's history reads something else. Heck! Is this some Play school that you were running before you were delegated with this unenviable chore of drafting the sacrosanct collection of letters and words called the "Constitution"?

In these days of hectic parlays, how many minutes would our representatives really have thought about the country, the roads, the infrastructure, the poor, the down-trodden . . . about anything that would constitute the very purpose of their being where they are? I wouldn't know, our people wouldn't know, none of our representatives would know either.

Coming to think of our country as one huge organisation, I can't help wondering what it would be like to have my own organisation filled with all sorts of people at the top, who never knew what "peaceful co-existence" is! Imagine my company chairman, its CEO, Board of Directors, Chief Operating Officer, Techincal Director, Finance Director, Purchase Manager and HR Chief trying to emulate what our Kingpins have been doing! Blaming, fighting, bargaining, buying out, selling out, having no Trust, taking no responsibility, being reckless, childish, stupid, arrogant, self-serving . . . I would definitely want my company closed down NOW!

In short, I want my Representatives to be sacked! I want my office to be closed. Hang the Parliament - and anyone else who is adamant on staying in it. And I'm sure that will not be the end of life. Being without rulers is better than being ruled by self-serving, conniving foxes. And ultimately, a rule will emerge. We can fight it out and can come up with a game plan. We dont need representatives to do the fighting for us!