When he wrote about the corruption as social means of gain, Premchand , an eminent writer of his times, would certainly not had thought that it will become as mighty as it is now. Corruption, is not a new issue in India, it has been registering its presence from centuries, what has changed is the dimension. If a case of corruption now involves “lakhs of crore rupees”, nobody needs a Galileo microscope to see the real picture, the picture is magnified enough. It seems that THE PEOPLE OF INDIA suddenly woken up and started fighting against the issue, no, it’s not the case. From then to now many things have been changed. India now is a country of more than a billion of which 47% are youth. India now is a country with more number of educated people. Indian youth is no longer is in situation to accept corruption as the part of their society, a deep resent existed even before this movement led by ANNAji. What led in what circumstances us to the steps of a mass movement?
Various scandals were discovered in 2010-2011, including the 2G spectrum scam, Adarsh Housing Society Scam, and the Commonwealth Games scam. These involved various Ministers and also members of the Armed Forces, and they demonstrated how entrenched corruption had become in India. People of India witnessed height of inaction on the part of government in the name of coalition bindings, CBI seemed to be helpless. Final blow came from honorable Supreme Court of India, after their involvement some action had been taken, the results of which are visible in Tihar jail. This made the people in the civil society to think over the issue and pay attention for the need of a strong and effective law .
On 4th of April, Hazare announced that he would commence his "fast unto death" and that this would last until a comprehensive measure to tackle corruption was introduced. He claimed that the government had excluded "civil society" from the panel set up to draft the Jan Lokpal Bill, and implied that at least one of the people who was to be on the drafting committee - Sharad Pawar - might be unsuitable for that role because of his large landholdings. When anna started his fast unto death- 1 on 5th of April, support poured in from all across the country. In Very short time anna became the voice of people who were the victim of corruption. These corruption wounded disturbed people started showing their discontent from the government and wholeheartedly supported the janlokpal bill. ANNA broke his fast1 when Government invited him in the process of drafting the LOKPAL bill by forming a joint drafting committee. In seven meetings of joint drafting committee, protracted negotiations resulted in nothing. Standoff between government and team anna made things worse. Government singlehandedly decided to send their weak, inefficient, flawed draft to the parliament. This made 74 year old anti corruption crusader to go again on an indefinite fast from 16th august. By now anna was no longer a person but he became a phenomenon. This gandhian became a household name and this time more number of people were with him. Fast 2 begun with ample miss management on the side of government, his arrest and release created a chaos all over the country. By the time he settled down at ramleela ground, all over the country peaceful protest in favour of janlokpal bill started, anger of people against corruption got a face in form of ANNA. After 12 days of the largest mass movement in recent times, when ANNA broke his fast, history has already been made. For the first time in the history of democratic India, a resolution incorporating ANNA’s 3 demands (citizen charter, lower bureaucracy to be under lok pal through an appropriate mechanism, establishment of lok ayukts in the states) have been passed.
Now let’s think from the critic’s point of view. Some of the people think that this is nothing but setting up a bad precedent, blow to the Indian democracy. It is correct that only parliament can draft a law and nobody from outside is expected to intervene in the procedures of a parliament. But it is also correct that most of the parliamentarians do not show a strong will to form an effective anti-corruption law which covers mp’s, because they know that they are not clean. There are many bills including women reservation, The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control & Rehabilition of Victims) Bill etc. that are pending from many years awaiting the political will of MP’s. Even the e Lokpal bill was first introduced by Shanti Bhushan in 1968 and passed the 4th Lok Sabha (Lower house) in 1969. But before it could be passed by Rajya Sabha (upper house of the Parliament of India), LokSabha was dissolved and the bill lapsed. The Subsequent versions were re-introduced in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and in 2008, but none of them passed. The people of India have seen the inaction and lack of political will in the halls of parliament for years and it is the time for the respected MP’s to understand the fact that this is the new awakened India needs immediate action. They cannot simply do whatever they want for five years. Yes, the method adopted by civil society was not 100% correct but for the time being for the sake of country and for reducing the corruption and for a dignified life of AAM AADAMI it is totally justified.
As I see, this movement have cleared many things in context of present India:-
- · People are not ready to except corruption in any form
- · People distrust their representatives
- · People think that politicians are most corrupt
- · Civil society involvement is necessary
- · Before taking any important steps, government should make a broad consensus
- · Mp’s need to restore the faith of people in parliament
- · MP’s need to meet people
- · Media came out as a vital role player in society
- · Youth has an important role in any movement
- · This is an unique movement of its type which was taken forward by gandhian way of NON VIOLENCE
- · People are absolute power
- · Representatives are ought to stick to the cause for serving people
- · Yes, GANDHIgiri still works
We have seen that this mass movement has brought people and parliament more close than they were before. Media played an important role to bring about this change. Miraculously anna became successful to connect large number of people across country and made them feel that the time has come for action and conveyed the parliament that people are absolute power. Even for the time being it seems to be an anti-democratic way; it is the only way forward. I expect that parliamentarians should understand now that the common people are watching them; they should show some will to bring about the change. I hope that in future public interests and democratic interests will not clash because basically both are same things.
