0.9 Who is anna hazare?  (Page 17/3)

April 06, 2011 (Monday) : Who is Anna Hazare?

Every Indian, if not heard about him, knew today the grit and size of a man who appeared to be a common Indian. Kishan Bapat Baburao Hazare (K.B.Hazare), called Anna by his friends, is known for his fights against corruption. More than often, Governments ultimately bowed to his demands as he carried the aura of selfless devotion to the causes he espoused. One can recall that he had forced the Shiv Sena – Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) coalition Government in 1995-96 to drop two corrupt Cabinet Ministers in Maharashtra. Then later in 2003, he had forced the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) coaltion Government again in Maharashtra to initiate investigation against four of their corrupt ministers.

An interesting story about Anna Hazare doing the round is that he had once contemplated suicide as he was frustrated with his life. One day, however, he bought a book on Swami Vivekananda at New Delhi Railway Station. He read the book and realized that the motive of his life was in serving his fellow human beings. Life had changed for him.

In recent time, he had fought the battle to have Right to Information (RTI) Act implemented. Now, he is on the hunger strike demanding that long pending citizen ombudsman legislation, called the Lok-Pal bill, be widened in its scope. He was demanding that Lok-Pal bill be drafted jointly by civil society and Government and not entirely by Government.

He wrote a very powerful five points letter to the Indian Prime Minister which explained what he stood for, while the establishment worked hard to pacify him. The composition of letter was very direct and concise. He wrote :

Dear Dr. Singh,

I have started my indefinite fast at Jantar mantar. I had invited you also to fast and pray for a corruption free India on 5th April. Though I did not receive any reply from you, I am hopeful that you must have done that.

I am pained to read and hear about government's reaction to my fast. I consider it my duty to clarify the points raised on behalf of Congress party and the government by their spokespersons, as they appear in media:

1. It is being alleged that I am being instigated by some people to sit on this fast. Dear Manmohan Singh ji, this is an insult to my sense of wisdom and intelligence. I am not a kid that I could be "instigated" into going on an indefinite fast. I am a fiercely independent person. I take advice from many friends and critics, but do what my conscience directs me to do. It is my experience that when cornered, governments resort to such malicious slandering. I am pained that the government, rather than addressing the issue of corruption, is trying to allege conspiracies, when there are none.

2. It is being said that I have shown impatience. Dear Prime Minister, so far, every government has shown complete insensitivity and lack of political commitment to tackling corruption. 62 years after independence, we still do not have independent and effective anti‐corruption systems. Very weak versions of Lok-Pal Bill were presented in Parliament eight times in last 42 years. Even these weak versions were not passed by Parliament. This means, left to themselves, the politicians and bureaucrats will never pass any law which subjects them to any kind of objective scrutiny. At a time, when the country has witnessed scams of unprecedented scale, the impatience of the entire country is justified. And we call upon you, not to look for precedents, but show courage to take unprecedented steps.