Eleven Reasons: Why Lokpal Bill Movement will be enshrined in golden words in the History Books…

Image courtesy: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/ article1696970.ece

1. It is now clear - as a nation, India hates corruption.

2. Despite its large scale, the campaign was amazingly peaceful. Millions of people protesting over a period of several days, and no violent incident! (There was an incident of ‘lathi-charge’ by the government near one minister’s house though, but no aggression from the people). ‘Large-scale non-violent movement’ is something for which the rest of the world will envy at us. A movement with pure aim (against corruption) and pure methods (non-violence) is a tribute to Gandhi in true sense.

3. Campaign has generated a much needed nation-wide discourse over anti-corruption. No legislative-bill has been discussed this much in public. Though it is just a start, it definitely is a promising one in fight against corruption at national level.

4. A protest was turned into a mass movement through the participation of the common people. People are surely awakened and more aware now. Movement has given a rare opportunity to the masses to realize their true power. Especially, the Indian middle-class, which was otherwise considered allergic to the state (interested in avoiding all possible interactions with the state including ‘voting’), participated in large numbers. It has realized its political muscle.

5. The youth power was on exhibition. In addition, the youth now has a much valuable experience of carrying out a peaceful mass movement. No university or school can provide such exposure that this campaign has provided in several days. Campaigning skill is a great asset for citizens of a democratic country.

6. The Indian-media has acted as a very important catalyst. It will not be an overstatement that the scaling up of the campaign has been done by the media (i.e., television, print, social and so on). It can be a research topic –‘why did Indian media cover this campaign?’ Otherwise, there are hundreds of campaigns every year, but the media never really finds time/space from four standard topics – politics, business, cricket and bollywood. The success of this campaign will surely reinforce them to back peaceful social struggles.

7. A minority of people, whose voice was undermined for so long, who always lived a life with complete integrity and honesty, whom others called ‘misfits in today’s times’, who refused to compromise on ethics for having few rupees more, had finally found some resonance on national media because of this anti-corruption movement. Now, these people, who otherwise lived in pockets of society in isolation, were synergizing and uniting and were raising their voice louder and louder. This is a big achievement of this campaign.

8. People of all religions, castes, race, age, colour, linguistic background, male or female stood by each other. In short, India’s unity was on display on fight against corruption. Muslims joined in large numbers despite idiotic statements by few Islamic clerics over slogans like ‘Vandemataram’ and ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ (I say ‘idiotic’ because it is so very unfortunate if your focus is on two words and not on the whole anti-corruption campaign; no offence intended). There were memorable scenes when many Muslim-brothers broke their Rozas at the Ramlila-maidan. There were attempts by few so-called intellectuals and politicians to warn off Dalits, but they miserably failed as well.

9. Campaign has given a much needed jolt to the Indian-politicians. Great lesson for the government – “Always acknowledge and value the aspirations of the common-people. And act towards fulfillment of those aspirations with sincerity”. Lesson for opposition – “Learn to raise specific issues that really matter to the people and avoid needless filibuster”. The Indian-politicians seemed to be grasping these lessons fairly well as they came to a consensus on agreeing with the core issues of the Jan-Lokpal draft, resulting in a gracious end for everyone.

10. Campaign is simply the triumph of Indian democracy. The hope prevails – ‘Voice of a small group of common citizens is recognized and revered, if it is in interest of the country and the people are genuine’. The political structure does provide space to the common people.

11. This movement should strengthen our democracy in-general. Can you imagine millions of people discussing and arguing what should be country’s law? Out of all chaos and confusion created by too many divergent voices, one thing is clear – ‘We have so many people who can think differently, and we also have same many people, if not less, who can come to a consensus to secure the interest of India’. Indian democracy has once again proved its masterful balancing skill between accommodating the diversity of voices and proceeding on the right path.

I welcome your comments....

Views on - Lage Raho Anna Bhai (Carry on Anna)

Image Courtesy: http://www.newsofdelhi.com/its-weird/lage-raho-anna-bahi 

Let me provide you a short description of events first:

Lokpal bill (ombudsman or anti-corruption bill) was first introduced by Mr. Shanti Bhushan, who was the Law Minister in Morarji Desai Government, in 1968. It was passed in Lok Sabha, but did not pass through Rajya Sabha. Subsequent versions have been introduced in Parliament nine times since then, but have never passed. For all these years the social activists repeatedly approached the respective central governments for working this out, however, it seemed like their voice landed on deaf ears. Events suddenly started unfolding from 5^th of April 2011, when Anna Hazare, one of the social activists of ‘India Against Corruption’, sat on fast unto death at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, demanding for the formation of joint committee of parliament for Lokpal bill. This was supported by many social workers, including some star-activists like- Kiran Bedi, Arvind Kejriwal, Medha Patkar and so on. Nation-wide media and Bollywood celebrities, religious leaders and many intellectuals started joining in and the campaign spread across India like a fire within few days. With strong support of Indian-middle class, the campaign succeeded and the UPA government agreed to have a joint bill-drafting committee (Five representatives of Government and civil society, respectively). This ‘joint- committee’ experiment failed. And now we have two different drafts- one of government and another of team Anna. The government wants to move forward to put its version of the bill in parliament. This has resulted in a second large-scale protest, another indefinite fast by Anna. Anna and team want their bill to be introduced and passed in the parliament.

The country is mainly divided into two camps (ignoring the third camp which is not much aware, likely to be in majority though):

Supporters use some (or all) of arguments:

· The government is deaf. This is the only non-violent way to make it act.

· Imagine, if Anna had not done it, we would have people like Sharad Pawar (icons of corruption) drafting the bill.

· This may not end corruption, but it surely is a way forward.

· We strongly support Anna, because the ruling class is nothing but ‘Chor’.

· Who knows if we will ever have such opportunity to fight corruption in future? Now is the time. The government is on the back-foot. If we continue pressure on it, we shall succeed.

Those who oppose use some (or all) of these arguments:

· Anna is blackmailing government by threatening large-scale campaigns. It's like saying "my way or the high way".

· Anna has done his job; enough of this stubbornness.

· We don't see how it will reduce corruption, as Lokpal will be the product of this corrupt-system only. We are not going to have any angles coming from heaven to India to serve as ‘Lokpal’.

· People are foolishly being emotional and calling it ‘second freedom movement’. There have been many such campaigns in the past on various issues. Nothing happens in the end, why waste time and energy of the country?

· It is hard to believe this group of activists is fighting for any national cause, like anti-corruption. They must be having their some kind of hidden agenda. (The conspiracy theory may go to any extend).

o The Congress government was going to have huge trouble over 2G & CWG scams. So, this was their grand plan to divert national attention. Once they tackle those issues, the Anna’s issue will be dramatically resolved. Don’t you see, Sonia Gandhi disappeared right before this???

o Anna has strong backing of right-wing people. This is BJP and RSS’s mega plan to bring NDA to power. Don’t you see how BJP is supporting Anna?

It is important to mention that the government's foolish actions (like detention of Anna & team) have triggered a mood swing in favour of the Anna's group in last couple of days for sure. Today, the public opinion is clearly against the government on anti-corruption issue.

My take of all these:

Both views have some element of truth. Of course, the current UPA government has completely lost its mind and seems clueless and completely disconnected from the masses. Detention of Anna was clearly a suicidal step for it. It seems like, it will emerge as the biggest looser. However, the demands by Anna & team are farfetched. I believe Anna and team have impeccable record of honesty and social-work, but I don't think they are the only competent people for drafting an anti-corruption bill. There are undoubtedly more dedicated and highly qualified Indians out there for this work. Who gave team Anna the authority to say that they represent civil society of India? Their supporters are mainly upper & middle class urban Indians. The number may go to few millions at the most, but India is a country of 1.2Billion. Can anyone with a million supporters draft a bill? Is India going to form its laws based on popularity??? What they are now doing is indeed like - 'my way or high-way'. I agree with them that their bill should be discussed in the parliament. But, I disagree when they say that their version of bill must be passed. The parliament can discuss both bills and revise bills as per requirement. It represents the people of India and gains its power from the constitution. All Indians must respect the parliament. You can oppose and criticize government(s) or political parties, but you cannot challenge Indian democratic establishment and constitution.

Nonetheless, I would thank Anna and team for mainly two reasons:

· They have generated a much needed nation-wide discourse over anti-corruption. This has surely awakened not only the middle-class urban citizens, but the Indian-politicians as well. All governments must acknowledge and value the aspirations of common-people. Their actions ought to be sincere. These protests should strengthen our democracy in-general.

· A minority of people, whose voice was undermined for so long, who always lived a life with complete integrity and honesty, whom others called ‘misfits in today’s times’, who refused to compromise on ethics for having few rupees more, had finally found some resonance on national media because of this anti-corruption movement. Now, these people, who otherwise lived in pockets of society in isolation, are synergizing and uniting and are raising their voice louder and louder. This is a big achievement of Anna & team.

Finally, let me answer all those who compare Anna to Gandhi. Gandhi fasted for his people and never against the British. He wanted his people to become better human beings. I don’t have to repeat what Anna is doing. If Gandhi would have been fighting corruption, he would have said, “I will fast until all my people stop corrupt-behaviour”. The idea is – “There is something wrong in my leadership that makes my people use unlawful means. Hence, I must suffer in order to become a purer leader”. Being Gandhi is difficult indeed. In stead of comparing them, let's value their respective roles.

Bottom line: I will support the movement as long as it does not attempt to overrule the Parliament (understand difference between parliament & government). If you cross the line, I shall protest against your protest to protect the democracy of my country.

· *** To all readers,
I would like to confess my mistake for one misinformation. After doing some research, I realized that the team-Anna never said that they represent the "civil society". It was the government which has tagged them as "civil society representatives".

Now, as the events are unfolding, it is very clear that the team-Anna has no intention of undermining the parliament. Their objective is simply the passage of a strong anti-corruption bill. It is important to note that they had exercised almost every alternate possible. "Indefinite fast" was their last option, which is in effect. They have shown some flexibility for having minor changes as per government's request, without compromising the core elements of the draft that form a strong bill.

You may like to read my previous article (when team-Anna campaigned for joint drafting committee): http://globiansperspective.blogspot.com/2011/04/changing-orientation-of-middle-90-to_08.html

I welcome your comments....

India – A Miracle Nation

Image courtesy: http://www.indianexpress.com/Picture-Gallery/757/4/1

In the 20^th century it was widely accepted that a nation with high homogeneity will be more stable and successful. Thus, when the new world order was created by the westerns following the World War-II, the international borders were drawn, mainly, based on linguistic, ethnic, religious or regional divides. A country, having all sorts of diversity and differences, was simply considered unnatural and destined to be a failure. Following this logic, when the question was raised about ‘an independent India’ the British intellectuals had severe doubts.

Sir John Strachey, who was a member of Governor General’s Counsel of British Raj, said – “‘India’ is merely a label of convenience, a name which we give to a great region including multitude of different countries. The differences between the countries of Europe are much smaller than those between ‘countries’ of India. Scotland is more like Spain than Bengal is like the Punjab. The most essential thing to learn about India – that there is not, and never was an India, or even any country of India possessing, according to any European ideas, any sort of unity, physical, political, social or religious”. While addressing his Cambridge audience, he said – “It is conceivable that national sympathies may arise in particular Indian ‘countries’, but that they should ever extend to India generally, that men of Punjab, Bengal, Bombay and Madras, should ever feel that they belong to one Indian nation, is impossible”.

When asked about ‘self-governance to India’, J. E. Welldon, former Bishop of Calcutta (1915), said – “The disappearance of the British Raj in India is at present, and must for a long time be, simply inconceivable. That it should be replaced by a native Government(s) is the wildest of wild dreams… As soon as the last British soldier sailed from Bombay or Karachi, India would become the battlefield of antagonistic racial and religious forces… the peaceful and progressive civilization, which Great Britain has slowly but surely brought into India, would shrivel up in a night”.

Views such as these were widely prevalent among the British. And politically the most important of these was undoubtedly Winston Churchill. In 1930-31, while speaking at the Albert Hall on ‘Our Duty to India’, he said – “to abandon India to the rule of the Brahmins (his reference to the Congress Party) would be an act of cruel and wicked negligence. If we leave, the entire gamut of public services created by us – the judicial, medical, railway and public works departments – would perish, and India will fall back quite rapidly through the centuries into the barbarism and privations of the Middle Ages’.

Of course, not all British intellectuals were so foolishly arrogant (and ignorant) about India and its people. For example, one of the prime movers of the Indian National Congress was a colonial official, A. O. Hume. However, people like Hume formed a very small minority. However, while objectively analyzing, the hopelessness about ‘one big India’ might have emerged because the idea of India was challenging the conventional idea of a nation. There are (and there were) many axes of conflicts:

Caste: In four varnas (place that jati occupies in social stratification) fit 3000 and more jatis (group one is born into), each challenging those, in the same region, that are ranked above it, and being in turn challenged by those below.

Language: The constitution of India recognizes 22 languages as ‘official’. According to Census of India of 2001, 29 languages are spoken by more than a million native speakers and 122 languages (234 mother tongues) by more than 10,000 speakers. 1962 Census recognized 1961 mother tongues. Of course, Indians speaking one tongue have fought with Indians who speak another.

Religion: Today a vast majority of the billion-plus Indians are Hindus (approx. 83%). But, India also has the second largest population of Muslims in the world – about 140million (only after Indonesia; Pakistan is likely to overtake due to its extra-ordinary population growth-rate) . Also, there are substantial communities of Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains. And India has had a number of communal riots. In pre-independence era, Hindus formed roughly 75% of populations, while Muslims formed about 23%.

Class: India has massive disparities. Although, the number of people coming out of poverty is rapidly increasing (poor population under 22% by 2015); still the economic divide has only increased (if not unchanged) over the period of time. The percentage share of India’s 55 Billionaires is about 15% of its GDP. On one hand India has about 1.3lac millionaires, and on the other hand the number of poor people living in eight states of India (about 420million) is higher than the number of poor in 26 poorest African countries (410million). These asymmetries have fuelled many movements of opposition. In pre-independence era about 70% of Indians were below poverty-line with literacy rate of about 18% creating a great reason to worry.

Regionalism: Some regions of India have still not being integrated completely (i.e., Kashmir and north eastern states). Also, conflicts have sparked between north and south Indians, and between Marathis and UP/Biharis.

In addition, most of the times, the conflicts are confusingly convoluted, where a group of people of particular region, speaking particular language, object practices of a particular religion to target the other side. Such mixture of axes most of the times impedes political class to move forward to resolve issues with clarity.

Despite all these complexities, the Indian leadership always maintained the idea of a united India. With the establishment of Congress, the foundations were laid by mainly, Dadabhai Navroji, Gokhle, and Tilak. However, the imagination of common Indian masses was captured by the vision given by Gandhi, Nehru and Tagore. Simultaneously, the socialist and communist youth organizations and Hindu nationalist youth volunteers devotedly worked for nation building. Amid all those freedom-movements and turmoil and confusions of 1946-47, Sardar Patel and his secretary V. P. Menon did the unthinkable. In mere two years, over 500 autonomous and sometimes ancient chiefdoms had been dissolved into fourteen new administrative units of India. Only one case of Kashmir went astray, that too mainly because there were many others involved and Patel was not consulted throughout the process. However, there were real possibilities of having hundreds of Kashmir-like scenarios that Patel’s shear political mastery averted.

It was then time for something unprecedented to happen. On 15^th of August 1947, the world witnessed the beginning of one of the most courageous experiments of human history. India came into being as a sovereign, socialist, secular democratic nation. All those who underestimated India, kept giving deadlines for its collapse. Those deadlines have passed and all those deadline-givers are dead, but India is still there. Of course, India has seen its darkest days – the bleeding partition and the greatest human migration of history, the wars with its neighbours, horrifying droughts and natural disasters, numerous communal riots and secession movements, deadliest terrorist strikes, financial collapses and international sanctions, and heavily armed insurgencies. However, India has remained intact. Its pluralist and tolerant social-fabric has absorbed all blows. Its existence itself is a miracle. A country, which was considered extremely poor, illiterate, and too diverse to self-govern and was predicted to result into a chaos within months, has emerged as a global power today. As time has passed, India has become stronger and more stronger. Its political and social stability has repeatedly surprised political/social scientists. The idea of India is not just a triumph of Indians, but of all of the mankind. We all can live together and grow. What more reason do we need to stay together except that we are all human-beings? Of course, we all have differences… But, isn’t the commonality out-weighing those differences? India is under the process of constantly discovering the binding forces across all possible divides. And its existence is the proof that these binding forces are much stronger than the divisive forces. ‘Let us discover and value what holds us together’ - is the greatest message India has for the world.

On the 15^th of August, 65^th Independence Day, I wish you all HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY…

I welcome your comments....

Note: the quotations in the article are from Ramachandra Guha's classic book 'India After Gandhi: A brief history of the world's largest democracy'.

Jana Gana Mana - National Anthem (Full Version with translation, courtesy- The Times of India)

Mera Tumhara - A song that portrays India's diversity- by Door Darshan, India