The Wake up Call
At last, the fast by Anna Hazare is over and there is now a lull for the time being. In the aftermath, while we may keep debating on issues relating to the movement, what is beyond any doubt is the spirit of patriotism and sense of nationalism which were seen together for the first time on the streets and, through T.V, in the drawing rooms all over the country and even beyond the borders. The atmosphere reverberated, as never before, with the ranting of patriotic slogans and fluttering of the tri-colours on the huge lawns.
And, more than anything else, the movement remained unbelievably peaceful and unexpectedly non-violent through out while the nerves of Anna Hazare and his team were on the trial. It was amazing to watch the movement gathering momentum and Anna’s supporters multiplying with unabated zeal and without being bothered to be away from their homes and work places for so long as the agitation lasted. Above all, socio-political life in Independent India having been an exclusive territory of political parties so far, it was surprising to see this agitation being fully bereft of any political affiliation.
Why and how all this was happening is a matter that needs our attention in the interest of our own future. If we look the whole thing a little more carefully we will be left with no doubt that this was the culmination of brewing frustration and anger within most of us over a period of six decades, as we watched helplessly the system, so fondly adopted through the Constitution of India, degenerating in down sliding pattern. It was the anger at our helplessness to see the country drifting into a wrong direction like a ship without radar. We have been watching so far with patience widening gulf between the poor and the rich acquiring threatening proportions, electoral politics degenerating gradually to touch the lowest ebb, corruption expanding to get into every corner of our national life, and , all this with no perceptible indications in sight towards containment of the trend , leave alone eliminating the evils that have been plaguing our society.
Whereas the political phenomenon has only been presenting the picture of utter depression, the cream of intellectuals, capable of providing intelligent lead, sat and watched with indifference leaving politics to be played with the crude game of numbers and money playing obnoxious role. With rising cost at all sectors, from education to medical, services to businesses and the life tainted deeply by unbridled commercialism, corruption and nepotism with ethical norms being replaced by materialistic compulsions, the majority of the population, comprising middle and the lower middle class, finds itself caught in the web of hassles and in the quagmire of penury which they try to conceal behind the vanity of their living styles. With credit cards in their hands and mobiles on their ears, most of them can be seen braving their way to meet their both ends, collecting huge and lofty sums to meet the admission and capitation fees of their children or looking for the roof over their heads.
There have been innumerable causes for such a condition to develop in our country. However, it looks that ‘corruption’, with its very broad connotation to include most of the evils in the society, came handy as an easy word to define their present plight. As for the leadership, they were looking for some one devoid of political moorings to take the cudgel and, in Anna Hazare, the Gandhian to the core, they found the one they were looking for. In fact, the spontaneous support of lakhs of people for Anna was a powerful expression of their flagging faith in the existing system of governance and desire for speedy change. And for that they could go any far to provide support to the Anna team. Their anger was against the entire political class, though, the party in power had to bear the brunt as being front ending them in the Parliament.
At stake, during the thick of the agitation was, the dignity of the august constitutional body, the Parliament, which, in effect, meant the dignity of the Constitution itself which had to be preserved at all costs, though the party in power in particular, and the political class as a whole, were in a dilemma how to get out of the mess that they were in. It indeed goes to the credit of the political leadership that displayed maturity, after initial fiasco, and rightly asserted the supremacy of the Parliament as the legislative body. And, at the same time, the agitation spearheaded by Anna Hazare scored, which they wanted to, which was to demonstrate its popular strength and sending the message to the entire political class that the people will no longer take things lying. Yes, they have succeeded in installing the wolf to remind parliamentarians that either they do their job well in their interest or be prepared to be devoured without a wink.
In fact , the governing class has been guilty of turning a blind eye to what should have been visible even to a blind man a few decades ago .Were it not so, we, as a nation, would not have missed to take the important milestones seriously, whether it was fifty years of Independence or of Republic, which were taken more as rituals for national celebrations, to pat our backs unashamedly at our successes and ignoring the glaring failures whereas , such occasions should have been taken as a God sent opportunity to pause, sit and introspect and , based on our experience gained as the biggest democracy in world, to review the working of the constitution and make amends to keep the highest law of the land in tune with the changing times. Instead we lived from day to day until the aberrations which crept in the system over the years started showing the adverse impact on the life of common men.
This is the wake up call and, if the powers that be do not act, there is every possibility that people may again come on the street. Let us not live on the delusion that it is Lokpal Bill versus Jan Lokpal and that once a strong bill is passed the war will be over. It is only the beginning and we should be prepared to expect more if timely steps are not taken to understand the nature of aberrations and to exercise required correctives in the existing system.
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