There is Light at the end of a long Tunnel….With Anna Hazare Around

We, the people of India have not lost faith in miracles…Well we almost did. Till Anna Hazare happened, a few weeks ago. A hunger strike, which got little notice at the beginning- Hunger strike, is something that happens everyday, every place for all and sundry causes. The people who have seen a lot of them have become insensitive to them, most of which had hidden agenda or they were down right frauds. This one was different, Anna Hazare with his spotlessly clean track record , so were his close circle of leaders,Kiren Bedi, Swami Agnivesh,Shanthi Bhushan .( I choose to ignore the revelations thru a CD for which nobody wants to own up paternity, as well as the stamp duty allegations-Where were they till Bhushan became a leading light in this movement?)  Slowly but surely, there was an awakening. People who were haplessly watching corruption charges of mind boggling enormity slowly got ignited. And then an avalanche followed .It brought the mighty government to knees. All kinds of silly excuses were thrown around, technicalities, burocratic jargons, rules. Procedures and what not? Yes people like Kapil Sibal have perfected the art of defending corruption and the corrupt –(remember his defense of A Raja in telecom Scam?) As a Lawyer he defended offender all his life, so no need to teach a swan to swim.

People of India has exhibited their ability to rise against injustice a number of times but the weakness appear to be the inability of leaders to sustain the momentum, keep it in the right track, not to allow fortune seekers to hijack the movement . We the people of India also fail to be vigilant be focused to intervene when the movement starts moving on the wrong track. Vested interests are able to bring up emotive issues which overshadows other issues and finally we are back to squire one.

If one attempts to track two of the greatest post independence movements – Total revolution led by Jayaprakash Narain and Jan Morcha of V.P.Singh – this is what precisely happened to them. Anna Hazare’s movement has to learn from the history. At the moment the leaders of the movement like Shanthi Bhushan, Kiren Bedi.Swami Agnivsh are all hope-inspiring. But the people of India have to be vigilant to ensure that politicians with doubtful reputation do not infiltrate and finally hijack the movement.

But for the elections in 5 states happening concurrently with the hunger strike of Anna Hazare, the Government certainly would not have responded the way it has.Now,let us examine the possible scenarios

1. The government representatives in the Lokpal Bill Drafting Committee can raise endless objections to proposals and delay the draft eternally.
2. They may throw up all kinds of arguments to the stringent clauses  that  feature in the draft bill presented by Anna Hazare’s team
3. Smear campaign has already started against Shanti Bhushan..It is only a matter of time before more members of the drafting committee are targeted. Very fact that a Youth Congress leader has come on a TV Channel gives some indication of the possible sources of the fabricated CD maligning Shanthi Bhushan although nobody is willing to own up the CD or its contents in public.
4. Even if the Drafting Committee is able to come out with an acceptable draft, there are many ways of stalling it in the parliament. Look at the fate of women’s reservation bill and a lot of other bills that are presented in Parliament, with no tangible progress.

There has to be constant vigil from the people at large to see that the above possible scenarios are actually not acted on. Pressure of public opinion can be built up via the new generation independent media since the mainstream media

Is hand in gloves with the corrupt. The standard  practice is to raise the corruption related issues up to a point and then slowly take the side of the corrupt and be a party to the hush up.

It is the duty of the independent new generation media to be vigilant on this and ensure the success of such movements