By S R N

The fast of Anna Hazare, in his quest for freedom from corruption, has reached the 7^th day today.  It is said that charity begins at home. Anna began his mission single handedly from his native village, RALEGAN SIDDHI in in Maharashtra. Today, the astute and spartan onetime soldier of the Indian Army has taken his fight right to the national capital and the seat of power.  No doubt,  the ever swelling support to his Gandhian model protest has shaken the executive and the reverberations of the battle have certainly awaken the entire nation.

The resolute Gandhian is in no mood to compromise for anything lessthan his Janlokpal, which he belives would be the heavest bludgeon to thrash corruption, the intense animosity national evil.

As it happens in any popular movement a few personalities got added into the frontline of Anna’s movement also. Surprisingly none of them were associated with his earlier battles which were just confined to his home state, Maharashtra.

Table

Names	Date of Birth	Service	Retirment
Anna Hazare	15 June 1937	Military Service-1963	1978 (VRS)
Nitte Santosh Hegde	16 June, 1940	1984 Judicial Officer Lokayukta for Karnataka state	June 2005 Till recently
Kiran Bedi	9 June 1949	IPS 1972	December 2007 (VRS)
Arvind Kejriwal	16 June 1968	IRS 1995	February 2006    (VRS)

As can be seen from the above table the foursome are June born Gemini-ians and has served the Government of India in different capacities. It may be their instinct that would have prompted them to take the cudgel against corruption.  So they joined the Anna brigade, probably feeling sorry for not being able to anything enough against corruption in their erstwhile capacities.

Its also a welcome decision from Shanti Bhushan a renowned legal luminary and a former Minister of India at Ministry of Law and Justice (1977–1979) in the Morarji Desai Ministry, to advise and lead the Anna’s struggle  against corruption.

But it needs to be recalled that as the then Law Minister though  Mr. Shanti Bhusan introduced the Lokpal bill in 1977  However, it did not pass because of the collapse of the government. He is presently co-chairman of the joint committee constituted in April 2011 for the Jan Lokpal Bill.

So as a Law Minister, Mr Bhusan, is aware of the legislative process and therefore Mr Bushan could have used his legal wisdom to move ahead.  Yesterday statement of Anna “ Jan Lokpal Bill nahi to nikal jao” (If no Jan Lokpal Bill, then quit the government) gives an impression that the nation is being pushed to a fresh elections. Why? Who are those people who perceive this? Read the following link…

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2379704.ece?homepage=true#.TlGemaV6xzd.mailto

This reminds us of the famous JP movement (sampoornakranthi) which lead to the imposition of emergency  followed by the ignominious defeat of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her party  in the hustings.  JP movement could produce an array of  political leaders who later became ministers and chiefministers, floated new political parties to retain or capture power and positions.  In their  battle for supremacy the worst casuality was none otherthan the electorate who voted the ‘revolutionary leaders’ to power anticipating a  better living condition that they were assured.

But the corruption escalated from its pervious peak. Many of the ‘revolutionaries’ who ascend the seat of power were later accused of absolute corruption and are still  not absolved of those charges.

Anna is a simpleton from an ascetic background. In the light of the previous experience many apprehend a possible hijack of the Anna movement by vested interests who are now jostling for a prominent positon in the agitation through the visual and print media.

In the name of fight against corruption, the nation should not be allowed to be held hostage by those nurturing personal and may be political aspirations.  If such mass moments for a noble and just cause are taken over by intruders with clandestine intentions the democratic fabric of the country could get fractured and the spirit of the people will get dampened.

May good sense prevail!

Jai Hind

(The views expressed in this article are of the writer’s)