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....