I’ve been working at a news desk where I’m constantly up to my ears in website visitors’ comments about Anna and their declarations of undying love for the social activist who has become the symbol of a growing movement against corruption. Only about 10 per cent of feedback on opinion polls and stories is critical of him. While Anna Hazare‘s methods and the ethical implications thereof are up for debate, there’s no denying that he has tapped into a bottomless well of frustration in the Indian psyche. Every section of society has its own gripes about corruption.
Anna’s movement is a great unifier with a wealth of Gandhian rhetoric at its feet that links the pacifist movement to its predecessors that ousted the British Raj. Feeling like you’re fighting a second freedom struggle against Congress Raj has got to be heady.
This is a year of revolutions, riots and mass movements worldwide. But in a nation that already has democracy, the goal of the ‘India Against Corruption’ bunch is to cleanse that democratic system of its cheaters.
It wants a body that is extra-governmental, and has the power (to my knowledge) to investigate, then prosecute, the entire governmental system. The current Congress government has proposed its own version of an anti-corruption bill that doesn’t hand over quite so much power to a non-elected body.
There’s huge support for Anna’s Lokpal Bill. So much so that the term ‘Jokepal’ Bill for the government version has caught on nation-wide. But contrary to Anna’s supporters’ beliefs, nobody, including the government, publicly adopts a pro-corruption stance.
There must be good reasons that the government can justify its bill: principled ones, that at the very least can be said to mask its pro-corruption stance (if you want to be the ultimate cynic).
So I’ve decided to do some research on what his version of the Lokpal Bill says and how it differs from the government’s proposed version. I’ll also compare them to Aruna Roy’s once I find out a bit about that. If you’re anything like me and have only a vague sense of what’s been going on, stay tuned for a laywoman’s investigation of the fight for the Lokpal. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures I took at Ramlila Maidan today, on the second day of Anna’s fast there.
Urban Mutt 