Govt Takes Fasting Anna

Starved of Ideas, Govt Takes Fasting Anna All Over Delhi

From arrest to release, govt muddles as people’s anger boils over to every part of the country

The authority of the Manmohan Singh government suffered a devastating blow on Tuesday after public outrage forced it to release anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare from prison barely 11 hours into a seven-day jail sentence. However, matters seemed to be getting worse after the Gandhian rejected his conditional release and threatened to continue his fast unto death from Tihar jail.
Till the time of going to press, negotiations were on between the government managers and Team Anna to get him to accept the conditional release. The government had told Anna that he would be arrested again if he defied prohibitory orders in force at JP Park.
The government surrendered meekly after a day of crackdown against Anna and his supporters, a televised justification by senior ministers — P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal and Ambika Soni — on his incarceration and their belligerent assertion of the government’s right to dictate terms of public protest. On Tuesday morning, the government had got a city magistrate’s endorsement for a seven-day prison sentence for Anna.
The ‘one step forward, two steps backward’ decision of the government represents a major setback for the prime minister and his chosen crisis managers, who were pushing for a ‘let’s-brazen-it-out’ approach. The PM has been personally overseeing the anti-Anna operation and had even got the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs to back his tough line against the crusader.
Anna, who began his fast on Tuesday morning while in detention, has said he will persist with his plans. Even before the arrest, Anna had said he will resist the Centre’s attempts to muzzle his voice. “The second freedom struggle has started … This is a fight for change,” he said in a pre-recorded message broadcast on YouTube.
Anna’s arrest inflamed smouldering grievances against the Manmohan Singh government’s inability to contain corruption. While around 6,000 Anna supporters were detained in the Capital alone, middle classes — which command a disproportionate say in opinion-making — rallied in various cities and towns to protest against the police crackdown. And there were clear signs of a growing emotional divide between Urban India and the UPA government. The arrest and the protests across the country instantly offered national headline-grabbing attention to the movement. National Anger Forced Govt Rethink
The government, which decided to take Anna into custody, had gambled that the agitation will lose steam if the Gandhian was not allowed to grow into a TV sensation. But the outpouring of anger across the country forced it to rethink its strategy.
The day’s developments dismayed Indian industry, which fears the stand-off will further delay economic decision-making. “Unfortunately, politics has trumped economics again. This was the time we needed urgent focus on economic policy and reform, but that is not going to happen. Investments have stalled and we are facing a possible double-dip recession. We needed urgency,” said Ficci Secretary General Rajiv Kumar.
Earlier in the day, Home Minister P Chidambaram had stepped forward to say the government had no option but to take Anna into custody as he had openly declared his plans to defy the prohibitory orders in force. Government leaders, who refrained from attacking Anna’s motive or his associates, even left open a window for negotiations with the activists. “If he wants to discuss the Lokpal Bill, the government is willing to give him space and time to present his ideas. The chairman of the standing committee of Parliament, which is looking at the Bill, can be requested to call him again for consultations,” Chidambaram had said. But at a time the government leadership is stuck with the perception that it is limp-wristed in dealing with corruption, a section of the ruling side fears the action against those demanding ethical standards in governance could lead to a further dwindling of the government’s approval ratings.
Sensing an opportunity to corner the government, non-Congress parties across the aisle came together to attack the government’s “highhanded approach” against Anna and his supporters. Their protests forced a shutdown of Parliament on Tuesday and they would go for an encore on Wednesday unless the prime minister makes a statement on Anna’s arrest. A meeting held in the Parliament office of leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj was attended by leaders of CPM, CPI, TDP, RJD and SP, besides NDA allies. “Here is a government perceived to be the most corrupt and it has launched a war against activists who are fighting for probity in public life. We may not agree with everything they are saying, but we cannot take away their right to protest,” leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said. The mishandling of the Anna agitation has further energised the Opposition and the government will have to deal with a more combative side in the coming days.

Source-TOI
Anna Hazare
Anna Hazare is one of India's well-acclaimed social activists. A former soldier in the Indian army, Anna is well known and respected for upgrading the ecology and economy of the village of Ralegan Siddhi which is located in the drought prone Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra state. The erstwhile barren village has metamorphosed into a unique model of rural development due to its effective water conservation methods, which made the villagers self-sufficient. Earlier, the same village witnessed alcoholism, utter poverty and migration to urban slums. Inspired by Hazare’s unique approach of salvaging a hopeless village, the state government has implemented the `Model Village’ scheme as part of its official strategy. Hazare is now synonymous with rural development in India.

He once contemplated suicide and even wrote a two-page essay on why he wanted to end his life. Anna Hazare was not driven to such a pass by circumstances. He wanted to live no more because he was frustrated with life and wanted an answer to the purpose of human existence.

The story goes that one day at the New Delhi Railway Station, he chanced upon a book on Swami Vivekananda. Drawn by Vivekananda's photograph, he is quoted as saying that he read the book and found his answer - that the motive of his life lay in service to his fellow humans.

Today, Anna Hazare is the face of India's fight against corruption. He has taken that fight to the corridors of power and challenged the government at the highest level. People, the common man and well-known personalities alike, are supporting him in the hundreds swelling to the thousands.

For Anna Hazare, it is another battle. And he has fought quite a few, Including some as a soldier for 15 years in Indian Army. He enlisted after the 1962 Indo-China war when the government exhorted young men to join the Army.

In 1978, he took voluntary retirement from the 9th Maratha Battalion and returned home to Ralegaon Siddhi, a village in Maharashtra's drought-prone Ahmadnagar. He was 39 years old.

He found farmers back home struggling for survival and their suffering would prompt him to pioneer rainwater conservation that put his little hamlet on the international map as a model village.

The villagers revere him. Thakaram Raut, a school teacher in Ralegaon Siddhi says, "Thanks to Anna's agitations, we got a school, we got electricity, we got development schemes for farmers.''

Anna Hazare's fight against corruption began here. He fought first against corruption that was blocking growth in rural India. His organization - the Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Andolan (People's movement against Corruption). His tool of protest - hunger strikes. And his prime target - politicians.

Maharashtra stalwarts like Sharad Pawar and Bal Thackeray have often called his style of agitation nothing short of "blackmail".

But his weapon is potent. In 1995-96, he forced the Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra to drop two corrupt Cabinet Ministers. In 2003, he forced the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) state government to set up an investigation against four ministers. In April this year, four days of fasting brought thousands of people out in support of his crusade against corruption. They also made the government realise it could not be dismissive about Anna Hazare and his mass appeal.

His relationship with the UPA government continues to be uneasy. The truce of April was short-lived. An exercise to set up a joint committee made up of equal numbers of government representatives and civil society activists, including Anna Hazare came to naught when the two sides failed to agree and drafted two different Lok Pal Bills. The government has brought its version in Parliament and Team Anna is livid.

The Gandhian is soldiering on. From one battle to another in his war against corruption. He fought from the front to have Right to Information (RTI) implemented. He is now fighting for the implementation of the Jan Lokpal Bill, the anti-corruption bill drafted by his team of crusaders.

This year, more than 30 years after Anna Hazare started his crusade, as the 74-year-old plans a second hunger strike in Delhi against large-scale corruption at the national level. Nothing really has changed except the scale of his battle.