The Anna Hazare's fast is in its fifth day and there has been a tremendous outpouring of public support in favor Anna Hazare all across this country. Apart from the support there has been a sectarian & unorganized criticism of Anna which ranges from method & tactics adopted by Anna, to the fear of a constitutional body which will become larger than our much celebrated, but tremendously weakened, pillars of democracy, to accusing the team Anna of much larger hidden political motives. I call this a sectarian criticism because it comes from a sect of people who belong to the congress party or are its blind supporters, superstars of news channels & other mainstream media like Ms Barkha Dutt, Ms Tavleen Singh etc who seem to be obsessed with the opinion of elite people who can reply with an accent and a bunch of other civil society folks who seem to be crying foul for reasons I may not be able to comprehend. I would like to address these cynics of Anna Hazare Movement or popularly known as the movement for the Janlokpal bill.
Before I start, I would like to put forth a premise for my arguments. Though we talk about unity in diversity with great pride in this country, we must honestly acknowledge that this country nevertheless is divided broadly into three major social and economic classes which are the upper, middle and lower class. The upper class are also the ruling class and the way the ruling class in this country operate is by keeping the middle and lower classes fighting with eachother and make them distrustful of eachothers motives. They go on dividing the very people that they rule based on race, caste, linguistic background, jobs, income, education, sexuality, anything to keep them fighting with eachother while they, the rich ruling class, can keep all the money. It is quite evident from the kind of corruption that we have witnessed in past 1-2 years.
For as long as I can remember, the politicians of this country have been making rules and policies without consulting with the people or to gauge their opinions on policies that affect them directly or indirectly in their day to day life. At times we have felt that most of these policies have come into effect which are pro-government or pro-corporations giving them more and more power over the people. I do not say that it is a conspiracy against the people. I am trying to put forth an idea that the of ruling class in any society operates in a similar manner irrespective of the countries they belong. Also, I do not adhere to the belief of many in Team Anna's camp that government policies can be made through public opinion. It would become more dangerous than the corrupt system that we have now.
There have been allegations by people from various ruling and non-ruling parties that the means adopted by Anna and his team are undemocratic. And the method of fasting has been equated to blackmail. Now there is nothing undemocratic about Anna & his teams' demands neither can fasting be equated to blackmail. Nevertheless, making statements that the bill must be brought in by a given deadline is actually blackmail.
With above statements, I believe I have made my opinions on the fiasco clear. It is logical to assume that I see a ray of hope in the movement. The hope is not for the Janlokpal bill, for I refuse to believe that it is the perfect bill that the country needs. What motivates me is the fact that for the first time I have been witness to a movement where public anguish against the social (not political) malaise of corruption is being addressed on the large scale by people from every sector of this country. It gives me hope that the synthesis of this movement will bring about a lokpal bill which will have enough constitutional and legal power to prosecute the public and private employees for proven corrupt practice and cannot be used to prosecute the innocent.
Now amidst all these personal aspirations from the movement, when I switch on the television, I hear a huge amount of unwarranted criticism against Anna from these upper class honchos who sit in the Air conditioned rooms of the television studios and opiate on the nature of democracy and spread the fear that the movement against corruption is itself corrupt.
Further, they are also using the tactic to divide the movement by including the caste & religion based division. This is the tragedy of this nation. Whenever people come together for a common cause the ruling class has the 'Ram Baan' of caste and religion to divide people and cause confusion. I am pretty sure that the public will disperse sooner than later...
My only appeal to these self proclaimed champions of 'I-know-everything' is that you have every right to criticize Anna and please do that by all means. But please do not derail the hope for change that has motivated all these people to come to streets. Afterall, in your allegorical speeches on television you seem to support the idea that corruption must be eradicated. Without this movement I do not see any other force that can bring ANY KIND of lokpal in center, forget Janlokpal Bill!
Before I start, I would like to put forth a premise for my arguments. Though we talk about unity in diversity with great pride in this country, we must honestly acknowledge that this country nevertheless is divided broadly into three major social and economic classes which are the upper, middle and lower class. The upper class are also the ruling class and the way the ruling class in this country operate is by keeping the middle and lower classes fighting with eachother and make them distrustful of eachothers motives. They go on dividing the very people that they rule based on race, caste, linguistic background, jobs, income, education, sexuality, anything to keep them fighting with eachother while they, the rich ruling class, can keep all the money. It is quite evident from the kind of corruption that we have witnessed in past 1-2 years.
For as long as I can remember, the politicians of this country have been making rules and policies without consulting with the people or to gauge their opinions on policies that affect them directly or indirectly in their day to day life. At times we have felt that most of these policies have come into effect which are pro-government or pro-corporations giving them more and more power over the people. I do not say that it is a conspiracy against the people. I am trying to put forth an idea that the of ruling class in any society operates in a similar manner irrespective of the countries they belong. Also, I do not adhere to the belief of many in Team Anna's camp that government policies can be made through public opinion. It would become more dangerous than the corrupt system that we have now.
There have been allegations by people from various ruling and non-ruling parties that the means adopted by Anna and his team are undemocratic. And the method of fasting has been equated to blackmail. Now there is nothing undemocratic about Anna & his teams' demands neither can fasting be equated to blackmail. Nevertheless, making statements that the bill must be brought in by a given deadline is actually blackmail.
With above statements, I believe I have made my opinions on the fiasco clear. It is logical to assume that I see a ray of hope in the movement. The hope is not for the Janlokpal bill, for I refuse to believe that it is the perfect bill that the country needs. What motivates me is the fact that for the first time I have been witness to a movement where public anguish against the social (not political) malaise of corruption is being addressed on the large scale by people from every sector of this country. It gives me hope that the synthesis of this movement will bring about a lokpal bill which will have enough constitutional and legal power to prosecute the public and private employees for proven corrupt practice and cannot be used to prosecute the innocent.
Now amidst all these personal aspirations from the movement, when I switch on the television, I hear a huge amount of unwarranted criticism against Anna from these upper class honchos who sit in the Air conditioned rooms of the television studios and opiate on the nature of democracy and spread the fear that the movement against corruption is itself corrupt.
Further, they are also using the tactic to divide the movement by including the caste & religion based division. This is the tragedy of this nation. Whenever people come together for a common cause the ruling class has the 'Ram Baan' of caste and religion to divide people and cause confusion. I am pretty sure that the public will disperse sooner than later...
My only appeal to these self proclaimed champions of 'I-know-everything' is that you have every right to criticize Anna and please do that by all means. But please do not derail the hope for change that has motivated all these people to come to streets. Afterall, in your allegorical speeches on television you seem to support the idea that corruption must be eradicated. Without this movement I do not see any other force that can bring ANY KIND of lokpal in center, forget Janlokpal Bill!
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