India is a democratic country where people are the ultimate rulers. Whether its President, Prime Minister or any other ministers; all will come next to the 1.21 billion commoners of India. They are the ones who have casted their votes and finally made these Governments or other ruling authorities. That is the same reason why they are known as ‘representatives’. They are simply representatives of a mass crowd. However, they forget that they come only next to the common citizens of India and these politicians carry out all types of bribery, scams and criminal activities without minding their masters.
“Politicians are servants of people”….A Gandhian named Anna Hazare came out to public with this proclamation. He does not have a record of holding high positions in the political parties. What he had is a huge support from the commoners of India. His main demand is to establish Lokpal Bill. The Lokpal Bill provides for filing complaints of corruption against the prime minister, other ministers, and MPs with the ombudsman. In Parliament, Lokpal bills were introduced in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and 2008, yet they were never passed and it is still pending. The main reason for this bill to stay with the status ‘pending’ is because majority of the politicians fear that their ‘clean’ image will not exist wh
en it is passed. Hazare began a fast unto death in April 2011 to exert pressure on Central Government to pass Lokpal Bill. With the assurance of ministers that the bill will be drafted soon, Hazare ended the hunger strike.
In between, a yoga leader Swami Ramdev, also joined the protest. He also started a hunger strike along with his thousands of followers. Police arrested Ramdev after removing his followers forcefully. Social workers from all over the country came to support Ramdev. The ruling party could get away from all those blames by mixing politics into it. Congressmen accused opposition in supporting Ramdev. Moreover Ramdev is allegedly called as business tycoon, has built a global yoga empire that stretches from India to a remote island in Scotland, with declared revenues since 1995 of 11 billion rupees.
In short, the entry of Baba Ramdev has reduced the sharpness and intensity of the fight for Lokpal Bill. Anna Hzare has nothing in hand except willingness and dedication to serve humanity. If you visit his village, Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra, you can very well know who this simple man for the villagers is. He has helped them to uproot alcoholism, improve education, milk production, removal of untouchability, starting grain banks, conducting collective marriages and watershed development program. Yet he remains so simple, but firm in his ideas. He does not have the power of finance or army with him. His main strength is truthfulness and support of the commoners, which no political or spiritual leaders can wipe out. As far as he is concerned, he wishes to remain as an obedient servant of his master that is the fellow citizens of India….
One of the tragedies of our contemporary political system is that those in power will do anything to stay in power, and those out of it will do anything to get it back. There is no concern for the common people's welfare, just how they can make the maximum personal gain by using their power. It is sad that in order to protect their wrongdoings, they are eager to look for ways to malign the movement rather than listen to the voice of the people.
ReplyDeleteYou are right Subho...Everything has confined into just two groups-ruling power and opposition.The real rulers or the public remain helpless...
ReplyDeleteTo make it clear, it is foolish to compare anyone with Gandhi. He got us freedom.
ReplyDeleteThe reason why lokpal was not passed is because there are many clauses in it which are controversial, something that hasn't been highlighted by the author.
I for one do not want my Prime Minister under any body during his tenure as it will result in under-performance.
Misuse of Right to Information has already led to gross inefficiency as any bureaucrat will testify to.