August 24, 2011

India a Ban-Anna Republic?

August 24, 2011 Posted by Vijay 2 comments
A bill supposed to free up India of its corruption menace. Or a man's obsession to be a national hero. The Lokpal bill has been in the backburner for decades together. But it looked like the right time to push the agenda, with a government reeling under heavy corruption scams - the 2G scam and the CWG scam especially. Anna Hazare has taken up the case of acute corruption in India, but has lost his focus completely. What cannot be refused here is his mass popularity and support.

The 74 year old Hazare, claimed that this was the second freedom struggle. In conjunction with the day of his fast being immediately after India's Independence Day, August 15. What baffled me is that, India's freedom struggle fructified on August 15, 1947, when Hazare was just 7 years old. Not sure how he could have been part of that freedom struggle? Was he just senile or trying to trump up the post Independence Day fervour in India? At 74 without a family to support, his motivation for such a noble cause is indeed commendable.

What became alarming and disturbing was the method used to shove his Lokpal bill form down the Government's throat. Anna doesn't have to announce his fast was not unto death. Keeping his age in mind, any fast beyond 5 days is literally a fast unto death in itself. Having had the Baba Ramdev incident of midnight eviction fresh in mind, it was easy for Anna to force his way into getting nationwide support when he was sent to Tihar Jail. While all what the government did was arrest him to prevent any untoward incident. Anna reached out to the masses by his tech savvy self, by playing up his video, vowing to push the Jan Lokpal bill (his own draft of the Lokpal Bill).