ANNA HAZARE

21.04.2001  ANNA HAZARE AND LOKPAL BILL

Mr Anna Hazare is a bold and honest person who has continously fought to expose corruption . Recently he arrived in Delhi and gave a ultimatum to the Central Govt to expedite the formulation of the anticorruption bill in consultation with the Civil society represented by his chosen men. He demanded that the draft of the bill should be finalised so that it could be placed before the Parliament in the coming June session.However what was surprising that  he started maligning Senior Ministers in the Govt starting with Sharad Pawar and then spewed his venom on the PM and Sonia. He openly praised Modi the architect of muslim pogrom in Gujrat and also praised Nitish the CM of Bihar a arch rival of the congress party.He conveniently forgot the purpose for which he was in Delhi and started acting as a leader of the opposition. Naturally all the opposition parties revelled in this. Some how Mr Anna thought that he could topple the Govt ultimately. He unwisely started to acquire unconstitutional powers,became aggressive and uncivil .It seemed that he was fighting a foreign power. He forgot that he will have to negotiate with the same constitutionally elected govt on which he his throwing stones. Thus Anna instead of encouraging a happy and harmonious atmosphere which was necessary for such a arduous exercise behaved in a irresponsible manner which is not expected of a mature leader. Inspite of his unseemly behaviour the Govt graciously accepted all his demands.

He included the father and son duo Shanti Bhushan and Prashant in his 5 member committee. Today serious facts of impropriety on behalf of Shanti Bhushan has emerged and from the allegations against this person it has become quite clear that he is not fit to be included in the committee. After all the civil society would not like that one of their representative is corrupt and dishonest. But the strange part is that Mr Anna is strongly defending his inclusion.First he pronounced that corrupt forces are airing such allegations to defeat his efforts to bring out a strong anticorruption law. Then he wrote a letter to Sonia terming this as a smear campaign and requesting her to stop this. He meant to say that the Govt in power and particularly the Congress Party is behind this. I am really surprised that how Anna has assumed that he is the sole authority to malign others.

Now Anna is saying that the Bhushans only are the  competent legal persons to formulate the draft and to discuss the same with the Govt. This argument is really ridiculous as if in this country only Bhushans are  the competent legal persons.

I would advise Anna two things. First that he should stop pointing his fingers towards others accusing them of corruption without any basis. It  is unbecoming of a leader of his stature to behave like a common urchin.After all there are so many good people also. I heard his associate Kejriwala naming all the Cabinet Ministers as corrupt and Anna silent consent was there. Secondly he should not behave as if he is the Constitutional Head of this country trying to dictate everything. He should be humble and should not become arrogant as he is till now. There is a constitutionally elected Govt in place which is cooperating and if he pushes it too far I am afraid he would be hurting himself and failing in his mission. The initiative which he has taken is praise worthy and he received lot of support from the people. He should honour this opportunity given to him and prove himself worthy of it instead of frittering his energies into wasteful channels.

A.K.BUNDI