Indian Congress party in Hazare Hazards

by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
August 18, 2011

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1662/indian-congress-party-in-hazare-hazards

Anna Hazare is leading India's "second freedom struggle", which is aimed at combating corruption. India, despite the fact of being world largest democracy has also turned into the worst corrupt nation, which has fallen into tights grips of visibly uni-polar political system of ruling Indian Congress Party, which has been labeled as the party with dynastic leadership of Indira Gandhi family. Meanwhile, Anna Hazare "hazards" have started spreading in the South Asian nations. Pakistani social activist Jehangeer Akhtar has announced to begin 'hunger strike' during mid-September protesting limitless corruption in his country.

In his list of demands, Jehangeer Akhtar, a 68-year-old whose runs a camera shop in Islamabad, asks for the Pakistan National Assembly to adopt legislation similar to the anti-graft Lokpal bill currently being debated by Indian lawmakers. He said that corruption is a more pressing problem in Pakistan than India.

According to Transparency International, the Berlin-based anti-graft watchdog's 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index India ranked 87, with the top position – shared by Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore – being the least corrupt nations. Pakistan came in at 143 in the survey of 178 countries. India is as corrupt as Albania and Liberia, said the survey, which draws on expert assessments and business opinion surveys. Pakistan was sandwiched between Zimbabwe [less corrupt] and Haiti [more corrupt].

One of the main demands of Pakistani activist Jehangeer Akhtar is to remove military cantonments from near residential areas. He seems to fear that in a coming unspecified war, an attack on these cantonments could lead to the death of civilians. He also is pushing for a reduction in military spending, which eats up the lion's share of Pakistan's budget at the expense of education and health.

Like Indians, Pakistanis are frustrated with politicians and army officials for limitless corruption, nepotism. But Pakistani civil society, similarly as civil society in Bangladesh, is rather shy in raising voice against corruption. Such tendency of the so-called civil society is because of their political affiliations as well as under-table understandings with the corrupt politicians and military officials.

Commenting on Anna Hazare, US media says "Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare has driven Indian government into a political corner." The anti-corruption movement of Anna Hazare, his arrest and his negotiations with the government, gorged wide coverage in the American media, with the papers saying that the Gandhian has become a thorn in the side of the government. "Hazare, a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, is the face of a nationwide social movement against rampant corruption that has gathered pace this year after a string of high-profile scandals. He has become a major thorn in the side of the government, which is led by the Congress party," The Washington Post reported.

CNN said "The social reformer has become an unlikely figurehead for the fight against corruption in the country [India]."

It further said ""He has been able to mobilise public support because there is so much dissatisfaction with the issue. Citizens have even created a website – www.ipaidabribe.com - where people can denounce the corruption they encounter in their daily lives."

The New York Times said "Fuelled by obsessive coverage on India's all-news television networks, the jailhouse protest clearly captured the imagination of the country, and appeared to have backed government leaders into a political corner."

The Los Angeles Times said "The Indian government's attempt to head off a political crisis by arresting a key anti-corruption activist appeared to backfire when Parliament walked out and demonstrations erupted around the country. In April, Hazare held a five-day fast that garnered enormous national support and helped make him the public face of a grass-roots anti-graft fight. It also put the ruling Congress Party under pressure to pass a controversial Lokpal, or people's protector, bill that, among other things, would establish an independent ombudsman able to investigate senior officials."

On the other hand, The Wall Street Journal said "Methods of Hazare's kind have no place in a democratic republic and, as the architect of India's constitution BR Ambedkar warned in 1949, are nothing but the grammar of anarchy. The real issue should be Hazare's demagogic tactics. An open political system like India's resolves differences through the ballot box, but Hazare is intent on forcing the issue by threatening to fast to the death. Hazare's supporters encourage comparisons to the emergency rule in 1975, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi suspended constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties. But if there is anyone who wants to undermine India's constitution today, it is Hazare."

The Wall Street Journal also accused the government led by Dr. Manmohan Singh responsible for the present mess as his inability to take concrete action against corruption had created a vacuum which now has been occupied by Hazare.

The New York Times said that corruption is a source of growing public anger and frustration in India, and a yoke threatening to drag down the coalition government led by the National Congress Party.

Hazare from Ralegan Siddhi village in the western state of Maharashtra joined the Indian Army in 1963 heeding patriotic calls by the government after Indian forces were defeated in a border war with China. During his 15-year army service, Anna Hazare sought for a purpose in life, even contemplating suicide, his biography says. He was influenced in his search after accidently coming across a book by Swami Vivekananda at a New Delhi railway station. "The book revealed to him that the ultimate motive of human life should be service to humanity. Striving for the betterment of common people is equivalent to offering a prayer to the God, he realized. At the age of 38, Anna Hazare took voluntary retirement from the army and returned to his native village. Over the next few decades, he gained wide acclaim in his home state and at the national level for transforming his once drought-prone, impoverished village to a prosperous "model village" by encouraging sustainable farming and rural life as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi.

Anna Hazare lives on his pension from army service in a room in the temple in his village and says his campaigns are financed by voluntary donations by his supporters. He is always seen in white clothes with a traditional Indian cap.

"The dream of India as a strong nation will not be realised without self-reliant, self-sufficient villages, this can be achieved only through social commitment & involvement of the common man," he is quoted as saying. Such nationalistic calls and his record of espousing integrity and honesty in public life have endeared Hazare to India's growing middle class, which frequently reviles its political leaders for the corruption that permeates everyday life. That has also thrust Anna Hazare to the forefront of national movement against corruption following his public fast in New Delhi in April. He has termed the current civil society's movement against corruption as "India's second freedom struggle," and has asked all Indians to participate. Critics say he is using anti-democratic methods of moral coercion to force his will on the elected government.

In the 1990s, the federal government awarded Anna Hazare with the Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri awards, the nation's third and fourth highest civilian awards respectively, for his social work.

Meanwhile, after the Indian government agreed to let Anna Hazare continue his 15-days mass protest against corruption in India, it is visibly clear that the fasting would ultimately lead into a doom for the ruling Congress Party. A large number of political opponents of Congress have already extended support to Hazare's program and it is anticipated that thousands of people will gather at Ramlila Maidan from Friday [August 19, 2011] morning. Meanwhile, Indian government has taken a written undertaking from Anna Hazare stating that the number of people gathered at the ground shall not exceed 25,000. The undertaking, which has been signed by Hazare and his team of civil society activists, also said that if any clause of it was violated, they would be liable to be prosecuted under law. The clauses of the undertaking include: no damage to public property; gathering will not exceed the limit of the ground; the crowd will not spill over to the nearby roads; the protesters will cooperate with traffic police; use of loudspeaker within the ambit of a Supreme Court order [10 p.m. limit]. The other clauses of the undertaking are: arrangement of drinking water, medical aid, mobile toilets, proper lighting; no carrying of lathi [bamboo or wooden stick] or any weapon; no provocative slogans or speeches; no inflammatory slogans within 200 metres of religious or worship places; public safety will be taken care of and no use of crackers.

It is evidently proved that Manmohan Singh government has got this undertaking signed by Anna Hazare fearing millions of protestors coming towards New Delhi to join the mass protest, which would ultimately turn into demonstration to topple down the corrupt government of the Indian Congress Party. Political analysts are saying, Anna Hazare has ultimately turned into political hazards for the Indian ruling party as well as corrupt politicians and officials in India. Though Anna Hazare and his supporters have given written undertaking to the law enforcing agencies, it is anticipated that, from Friday, when Anna Hazare begins his mass protest from Ramlila Maidan, similar protests may erupt in others parts of India.

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