This post is written as a reply to a comment on my post on Baba Ramdev .
the reader commented
That if a low level activist like Anna Hazare could lead a fight against corruption why not Baba Ramdev being followed by millions ,
He also felt Anna Hazare was an escape valve for middle class ambitions ,of people who dont believe in parliamentary democracy or in the ruling by political parties !
He went on to say that how can any Anna or his coterie blackmail the system by fasting ?
and then to say
who are his followers but a bunch of politically ignorant students and youngsters !
and who according to the commentator is Anna ? He had never heard of him till this fast !and he left with a comment that Anna and company alone can never bell the corrupt cat but it is each of us who should do this
Brave words indeed !
let me break these arguments one by one
Gandhiji had advised evenbefore we attained freedom to dismantle the congress party he beonged to ,as he could foresee the mess it would become one day !
The lone lawyer with all his warts and eccentrities was an unknown when he rose in the horizon
he used the same blackmail of fasting and sathygraha to drive the mighty British away and the nation stood behind him as one because they realised his sincerity .
never underestimate the power of individuals
If somebody had not heard of Anna Hazare the social activist he should blame himself for being ignorant instead of belittling the man .
Kisan Baburao Hazare was serving the Army as a driver during the Indo Pak war 1965 when an encounter killed all his compatriots excpect him surviving a bullet missing his head ,the incident made him ponder on the meaning of life and immersing himself in books by Swami Vivkenanda made him dedicate his life to his small village in Maharasthra called Ralegan sidhi a model village with no alcoholism ,with grain banks self sufficiency in water ,and his work earned him the Padma Bhushan and his fight against corruption was nothing new as he was always in the forefront in the Right to information act etc .
his coterie as sneeringly commented does not contain novices but legal luminaries like former
law minister Shanti Bhusan and his son Prasanth Bhusan who are senior supreme court lawyers ,
Arvind kejariwal the spokesman often seen in the TV channels is not any zindabad howling goonda following a party but an IIT Kharagpur graduate and an Indian revenue service officer who took a sabbatical from his work to continue as an activist for the right to information act
Kiran Bedi the retired IPs officer needs no introduction from me
swami Agnivesh an Arya samaj scholar has worked for years against bonded labour .
If our young Indians have started believing in such people today I am delighted
what choice do they have ,
is it the bunch of jokers called politicans ruling us today( with rare exceptions)
they are the sad alternatives available !
The likes of Mayawati a Dalit darling and a parasite of thier votes has spent crores glorifying herself with statues and money garlands when the poor in her state perpetually wallow in muck .
The Rajas ,Karunanaidhis ,Jayalalithas ,Kalmadis ,Mundes ,Pawars and Pinarayis have plundered this nation systematically more than even what the British did
at least they did built Indian Railways as an example !!
The parliamentary democracy in India is soemthing to be proud of but the system today is hijacked by muscle and money .
The aaam aadmi has no power and all tall talk of contributing ones mite instead of doing lot of impotent writing and talking is a standard argument of every politician cornered in a debate why dont you join the system ? why do you talk standing outside great ?
The only way one can join the system is to be a party worker which is to become a fodder and foot soldier for the parties leaders to follow thier dictates with the law in thier hands, with the rules that can be flouted ,with the connivance of a corrupt bureacracy and an army of thugs to muscle any oppositon
Any politician would be in a win win situation
it is a giant racket
Every few years the gullible voter votes with eternal hope for change ,casts his right into the ballot hoping for freshness and fairness to be cheated again and again again
Any day the youth should follow leaders like Anna than these uncouth men who call themselves political leaders
kerala is a bad example of a politically conscious youth being misled by the nose by selfish politicians
Talking of blackmail there are umptteen examples of bullying used against the common man day after day
Take the hartals, gheroas ,demonstrations and keralas own specialities vettiniruthals
the common man is bulldozed by the labour class by nokku koolis and attimaris even to this day and if Anna is getting a lokpal by trying to kill himself by fasting so be it
let none talk of blackmail
I earnestly hope Anna hazare and his team win with no interruptions from emisaries sent to disrupt his mission
a strong lokpal bill will be a weapon against corruption and the politicians know this hence they would use all thier Chanakyan skills to squelch it and dilute it ,
every patriotic Indian should support the bill as his duty .
