Anna Hazare: Assassin or Saviour?

The following article was originally published on Infinity IIT Delhi website - http://infinityiitd.com/anna-hazare-assassin-saviour/

India is on the threshold of writing history; thanks to Anna Hazare and company. I respect Anna Hazare, but I am not a big fan of his attitude and his methods. The way Hazare is handling things is totally against a democratical form of government.

Our government is elected by electoral processes and not by mere revolt by a group of people.

A law is made by the discretion of the parliament, a body which is capable enough to amend and make laws. People can only suggest the parliament to make certain laws, not bully the institution. Who has given authority to Anna Hazare and his entourage to negotiate with the government? We are disrespecting our prime minister. Our acts are only demoralizing the government.

Right to Information act, a first of its kind bill was introduced by the present government only, and this is the reason the past decade saw so many scams being unravelled. Manmohan Singh is no fool. He is wary of the situation of the present government. He knows that letting in an extremist bill won’t be of much help. Making a new law won’t stop the people from taking or giving bribes. The mentality of the people needs to be changed. By punishing the criminal, crime cannot be liquidated.

 In the current situation, the system is diminished by the hollow ‘revolutionary’ gestures of the crowd. A nation’s general public collectively cannot make or amend laws. Only the representatives chosen by the public have the true power to make laws. A ‘crowd’ has no name, no accountability, no sense, and no brains. They are blind followers and sometimes even bought. Babri Masjid was demolished by a ‘crowd’; riots in Gujarat were an act by a ‘crowd’; the mass killings of 1984 were also initiated by a ‘crowd’. Thus, a crowd is not legitimate enough to support the bill.

Winning general public’s support or being popular doesn’t suffice to authorize someone with electoral rights. Hazare is setting a wrong example by taking public support into account to pass the Lokpal Bill. Tomorrow someone else will propose a new bill and tag it with public support. Baba Ramdev is a recent example of the same. The public is seeing only the bright side of the bill and doesn’t know the inner politics behind it. They are blindly supporting the ombudsman; half of them don’t even know what the Lokpal Bill is. We are ourselves weakening our institutions by our very own hands. The voice of Arvind Kejiriwal is not the voice of the whole country. He is imposing his thoughts in the name of public’s.

Anna says that Jan Lokpal Bill will reduce corruption by 65%. My take is – if all the people pledge not to give or take bribes, all businessmen pledge to honestly pay taxes, then corruption will reduce more drastically.

Comparing Anna to Gandhiji is disrespectful to the latter. Gandhiji fought against a foreign rule. Anna is fighting against a government chosen by the citizens of India. Gandhiji’s voice was solely his own, but Anna seems to be borrowing voices.

Anna Hazare has said what he had to, which has come to the notice of the whole nation and the government as well. Now he must rest his case and give the government enough time to complete the cause.