Anna Hazare – a Messiah or a Ticking Time Bomb?

We Indians are always known for holding extreme views, and emotions not laced by “pure reason” (as Tagore calls it in Gitanjali). From worshipping our cricketers to burning their houses, from acts of honour during the Kargil war to the 3G Scam.

I am afraid many of those in that rally, proclaiming “I am Anna”, “mein Bhi Anna”, don’t have a clue as to the difference between the Lokpal bill as passed in the Parliament, and the Jan Lokpal bill. Are the youth wrong? Not at all. The youth in any country and era, always wants a cause to attach themselves to. The Indian Government, if it had the leadership to move the country ahead to become a world super power, then that passion would have ignited the young minds to rally around that cause. But alas there is none!
Now Anna arrives on the scene, as a (seemingly) affable old man. Only if the young people knew that the same Anna had in his village flogged two young people for drinking alcohol, banned liquor shops there, regulated TV time, and almost forced people to lead a pious life. Once a driver in the Indian Army, Anna, has now risen to this stature from his own conviction. But unlike Gandhi who never used fasting like an antagonistic tool, Anna is using it to fight adversaries. Anna must remain rigid against Govt attitude but flexible to diverse views. That is the essence of democracy.

So will I not join the rally? Yes I did join the rally. But for me Anna is only a reason. Anna is living his convictions and fighting corruption. We must commend him for rising to the occasion. But even he never would have expected this kind of support he is getting, just as he did not expect such ineptitude on the part of the govt. Why this kind of support? The support is for the cause more than support for Anna, who is revered for being the reason of it.

Some people are asking, whether the Anna movement has dented the Indian image of a democratic nation? In fact to the contrary, it is an emphatic affirmation that democracy in India is truly alive. Thousands came to the street, but all non-violently, for a country where the mob at the smallest provocation torch buses.

Anna has put Corruption on red alert. This is fabulous. Decades ago as a young man in Kerala I heard a wonderful speaker and Gandhian, M P Manmadhan. Even in the 70s he spoke of the curse of corruption. He said the difference between corruption of old and of new, was that in the olden days there was“sourness” (pulip -“sourness” in Malayalam) when it was done. But now there was no sourness, it had become a matter of course. I agonized always, over whether my sons would grow up thinking corruption is ok? Anna has held up the mirror to our faces. At least the sourness is back.

But then that is it. It ends there. I don’t agree to the Jan Lokpal bill being greater than the parliament. Then who will be the Lokpal of the Lokpal?  Anna is saying that impeccable humans will be chosen to head the Lokpal. This is untenable. There is no perfect human. Only Collectively we check and balance.
 I would like every government official to come under the Lokpal bill. Put all the investigating agencies under the Lokpal and then let all findings be sent to the parliament to decide, for major issues.

But what about the small local cases of corruption, who will control and monitor? I don’t know yet.

But let’s give Anna his due and thank him for bringing back the sourness and stirring up the pot. But he needs to be flexible to “listen” to other views from similar crusaders. Let not the situation get reverse engineered- let not public’s misconceived ideas of the Lokpal bill become a burden on Anna himself. Let not Anna be in the situation of Deva Anand in the film “Guide”. Let not his cause become his nemesis. Let us not turn Anna into a time bomb.