I am Anna; I am not Anna

I am Anna. I am not Anna. I have been hearing this as you have also heard about it. Many blogs I read, some praising Anna Hazare, others not so and some others partly agreeing.

As everyone, I have my own take and will try to answer some people’s queries, view points through this blog.

About Anna

Well, as a person I have great respect for this man (irrespective of whether I support the movement or not). This person knows all about man management. Whatever he has done for his village in his hometown is remarkable. His simple lifestyle, high thinking, integrity, honesty, dedication, determination are all remarkable. I salute him for what he is and what he preaches. You can call him a clean person, considering nowadays it’s very hard to find one. I can proudly say I do look upto him as a great human being. In today’s world we need more of honest people and less of intelligent ones. Many people doubt about his fasting onto death. I mean why does a person who his aged 74 years has to fast and what is he gonna benefit personally if the bill gets passed or corruption do gets reduced. Whether his fasting onto death is right way or not, that’s a different issue.

When the movement started, there was an uprising in the middle eat. Libya, Syria, Egypt….I mean everywhere. It was totally violent. I feared that the movement in India might also go the same way. But due to the best man management of Anna Hazare there was not even a single window was broken. It was so peaceful. That was a proud moment for me to call myself as Indian. If someone wants a best example as to how to manage things, ask Anna Hazare. You have seen something, which you don’t learn in a B school. Think about it.

About his Movement and the Jan Lokpal Bill (JLB)

This is the most debated topic now. About his so called dictatorship, his fast onto death, he killing the democracy and all other sorts of things. I want to focus on some specific things here since everywhere you can find about his movement and all those stuff.

I have one simple question, why the hell the JLB was pending for more than 40 years…?? Do you know that recently the parliament passed 17 bills in a span of 12 minutes, how about that..?? Yes just 12 minutes. So there must be a reason for the political class for not passing the bill and it’s obvious that we all know the reason. Politicians pass only those bills which don’t affect them and bills which do affect them, they dilute the bill or they never let it pass at all.

Whenever the Anna Hazare puts pressure on the government, they come up with an excuse saying, “Parliament is the highest authority and he (Anna Hazare) is trying to hijack it and it is against the democracy” Hearing this, I laughed at their so called defense. I request all of you to read the Indian Constitution. It is the people who are the highest authority. The Constitution, the Parliament, the legislative…everything is meant to serve the best interests of the country and its people. The politicians just need something to back their argument. If the parliament doesn’t function for its people, then what’s the use.

I have heard people saying, JLB is not a magic wand where corruption can eliminated at one shot. It’s sure is not a magic wand to eliminate corruption. Common man, we are all educated enough to understand that. If we think that every bill, passed by the parliament for the betterment of this country, will eliminate completely what it is meant to be, then we would not have been in this situation as were are in today. We would be living in so called, “Ramarajya”

I am Anna; I am not Anna

Whether you support the movement or not is left to you. If you don’t follow what you preach, then what’s the use. He (Anna Hazare) doesn’t want fake support. He wants all of us to understand the importance of fighting corruption. I never went to any rally of his. But I do follow what I preach and what he tells. Recently a traffic policeman caught me. I was riding the bike and I was not carrying the documents because I had just washed my bike and forgot to keep the documents back. The policeman asked me to pay Rs. 300 amount as fine. I could have easily paid him Rs. 100 (which would have gone to his own pocket rather than to the government). I paid Rs. 300 as fine. It’s a mistake I made and I should pay for it. I have no issues. Tell me frankly how many of you will do this. I am not praising myself here, but this is what he meant fighting corruption. I am Anna or I am not Anna, has nothing to do with this. If you are supporting him and at the end of the day you pay bribe then there is no point in supporting the movement. So what’s important is that we need to cultivate the right attitude.

We need to understand that in the fight against corruption, it’s not the question of who is right and who is wrong. It’s the question of who is doing a much better job. In this case, it’s the Team Anna who wins Hands down no question about it. I (or rather everyone) can give hundred concrete reasons as to why the government doesn’t want to pass the bill and how the politicians are personally going benefit from it. But I don’t have one concrete reason to tell as to how Anna Hazare is going to benefit personally from passing of the bill. We are all smart enough to understand this. It is perfectly fine if you are not going to his movements or join him in his fast.

Anna as Dictator

Well thanks to the politicians they achieved what they wanted. They kept saying Anna is a dictator and is hijacking the democracy, is going against the constitution, parliament is highest authority and all those shit. 40 years man, 40 years….just imagine they were not able to (rather didn’t wanted to) pass the bill. They can’t even pass a single bill for the last 40 years. What do you expect people to do. Just sit and accept what the politicians say.

This is true story of a widow I saw in newspaper if I am not wrong. She lost her husband and has children to feed and no work. Her only source of income is her husband’s pension which she gets every month. In order to receive the pension (which is her right) she had to travel to all the government departments to say that she is his wife and she is the legal heir to get her husband’s pension. Even after submitting all the documents, she had to wait, courtesy Corruption. In order to receive the pension, the person or department that processes her request wanted some money, it’s called BRIBE by the way. Who will help her..? tell me, who will..? Just Imagine, at the time of joining a job you are told that your salary is Rs. 30,000/month but what you actually received is Rs. 15,000, how would you feel…? Let me tell you another situation. Just assume that if someone says to receive your salary every month, you have to pay some money to the person paying it. How do you feel…? You feel outrageous. But that old women doesn’t have that liberty. For she was more worried about raising her children. For these kind of people only Anna Hazare is fighting. We all (including me) can move on because we can afford to give bribe and fight to some extent. But there are crores of people who need someone to help them to claim their right.

Anna as Anti-Congress

Let me tell you one thing, if you are ready to give vote to a particular party, they will do anything. They will replace God’s photo with yours if you say you will vote for them. This is the sad state of affairs. They will beg you, touch your feet and do what not. The Congress party and its allies are in power. They will do anything to come to power in the next term, even at the stake of our country’s well being. Anna Hazare has decided to campaign against the congress in the elections. I don’t find anything wrong there. It doesn’t mean he is supporting another party, no it’s not. If we go by that logic then the people who don’t support Anna or his movement means to say that they support the corrupt politicians. I am sure that’s not the case. As elections come closer, politicians offer heaven to people but after they have won, it’s full of hell. Someone have to teach a lesson to politicians that they just can’t take people for granted. Their responsibility is to take proactive measures for the welfare of the country and its people but forget about proactive measures they are lagging way far behind in passing bills which should have been done long back.

Conclusion

So, what matters is not whether you support or not, but are you truly and whole heartedly fighting corruption. It’s perfectly fine to not to support Anna’s movement. The government is clearly in the back seat. There is an information overload right from TV, newspaper, blogs, twitter, Facebook, I mean everywhere you have information coming from. I just request people that there is a bigger picture to look at. If we can remove all the clutter and just focus on what is important, we will surely go forward. As I conclude, there is a debate going on in the Rajya Sabha with regard to passing of the bill. Frankly I have never seen politicians working midnight for the welfare of the country.

Finally whatever the status of the JLB as on today is solely due to Anna Hazare’s determination and dedication. If he had not started this movement, we would not have seen this day and the bill would not have been passed for another 40 years may be. As I said, it’s not about who is right or wrong, but who is doing a better job. If the parliament is debating today, it’s only because of the pressure put by Team Anna. If only they had done their job correctly, why would someone pressure the politicians to act.

Keep Smiling,

Prashanth.