Thursday, April 07, 2011

Wishing my best to Anna Hazare's movement - India Against Corruption






It sure is worth great admiration, otherwise people won't be flocking around Jantar-Mantar in order to support Anna. The timing of his fast is also good, because the momentum (or public support) against corruption is pretty strong so probability of such a bill passing even though very small is at its highest now. If that happens then, this will be the third great victory in recent years for the common man, first two being passing RTI Act and winning the World Cup.

Anyway, I wish and pray that this bill sees the light as a law without any dilution, though I am slightly uncomfortable with another big increase in the size of state but I guess it is well worth it. As Mrs. Gandhi has come into the picture, my hopes have certainly increased. Though I am not 100% sure if her efforts may not be enough to achieve this humongous goal. I think Anna and colleagues also expected than Mrs. Gandhi will come in their support sooner or later and won't let her advisors make her try to dodge this issue, which is dear to her heart too. Still, it is not her will or sincerity that I doubt, but it is her capacity. She has so much power because it is beneficial for everyone in the Congress, the good guys, the bad guys, the competitive ones and the incompetent sycophants. Nobody wants to disrupt the status quo and also want to keep making the best out of it till they can. Passing this bill undiluted would harm most of them and they will try their best to not let that happen.

As for BJP and various other parties, they are worried like hell too. As for Congress governments (including the Centre and states), this bill would almost be a death pill for their state governments, but noone can afford to come out against the bill. So they all are just praying that the small power centers of the most experienced party Congress succeed in diluting the bill significantly. Also, we know that in the big cities middle class is coming out in support of Anna but most of people and their representatives are from the lesser known cities, towns and rural areas. We haven't heard much about how much active support is there for this movement.

In cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore we can easily find a huge number of middle class Indians whose jobs just don't involve any involvement with the government, and they are more aware and seasonally activist too. But I am not sure that rest of the India, which is quite different from these cities, will also provide a similar support to the movement so that the momentum doesn't die out slowly. I guess, this is certainly the juncture where media can play a huge role by shaping the public opinion. Let's see if they turn out to be a sell-out again or would show some conscience this time.

The anger and mistrust of politicians is certainly there everywhere. I hope it gets energized in all the small cities too, so that we can actually see the change we want to see in our system.

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