HE STANDS TALL

"Corruption has eaten into our country like a deadly virus". How many of us have actually uttered these words? How many of us have just concluded that nothing can actually happen of this country, that this corruption will one day be so common that nothing will seem different. How many of us have frowned upon the thought of the level of corruption in India? I'm one of those people who have thought on these lines and somehow concluded in my mind that nothing would happen unless people changed themselves. That nothing would happen unless we ourselves stop being a part of it.

How easy is it to be a part of corruption and escape, like for example bribe the traffic policeman after violating a traffic rule and escape the headache of a court hearing. How easy is it to bribe a person at the transport office and get a licence or learner's licence in an instant. Corruption in a way has made our lives easier but at what cost?
It is at the cost of disabling and crippling a country like ours. Corruption at a personal level is degrading. We've all talked about the corrupt politicians, about corrupt companies but are we not a part of a similar vicious cycle? Corruption has become a comfortable habit and eased our lives. Somehow, the status of corruption has intensified over the last couple of months.

"PEOPLE MARCH, GOVT CRAWLS" read the headlines of the newspaper Times of India dated 17th August. What had made the mighty UPA government crawl which is rather unaffected by other such trivial occurrences? But this was something that shook them hard too. What force could that have possibly been? What was the cause of such an unrest? It was the efforts of mainly one man who stood tall against the government of the country deciding not to bow down to the political pressures. The reason for all of us to be aware about the current scenario is because of this one man.

One man who stood tall despite the whole government being against him and still does, one man who had a vision and believed that the country could be saved from this malice, a Gandhian, Kisan Baburao Hazare, popularly known as Anna Hazare. This man needs no introduction. He has done considerable work not only against corruption but even otherwise. In his early life, he had been a part of the Indian army as a driver and survived an assault when all his fellow comrades died, this incident inspired him and since then, he has been a part of hundreds of causes primarily in his village of Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra for which he was even awarded the Padma Bhushan too. The man has been phenomenal in starting out a mass upheaval and a revolution against corruption.

It all started in the year of 2011, particularly gained momentum from the 5th of April when Anna went on a fast unto death at Jantar Mantar, Delhi, to demand the formation of a lokpal bill for the end of corruption. The whole world took notice of this man who single handedly shook the country, thousands joined him in this movement. Protests went on in major cities of India and the Indian youth intently took part in the movement in a matter of a few days. 3 days later, government agreed to all the demands and Anna ended the fast. Once the fast was done, the government played a waiting game. As expected, when the joint committee met on 30th May, there were differences because the Prime Minister, higher judiciary and other MP's were not included in the scrutiny and Anna went on fast again. Since then, many attempts have been made to revise the bill and make it acceptable. Finally, Anna wrote a letter to PM Manmohan Singh and indicated his intentions to go on a fast from 16th August in Ram Lila Maidan. However, Anna was arrested 4 hours even before he could start his indefinite fast. Anna refused bail and went to Tihar jail. Soon after his arrest, the whole country went on peaceful protests against the arrest. Youth staged a dharna  outside Tihar and the country rose to the occasion.

Anna was released and was allowed to protest peacefully. Lot of people do not have any awareness about the lokpal and jan lokpal bill, the jan lokpal bill was an improvement on the lokpal bill(which was devised by the government)and included the PM and other higher government officials. More can be studied about it(on wikipedia and social media) but the recent events have left a lot of questions in mind.

A person with a noble idea in our country is arrested before even starting a peaceful protest but a man who has done scams in the CWG was arrested after 9 months of conviction. Millions of criminal cases are still pending in the Indian courts. Nobody protested on a massive scale before this movement and the cause of corruption always took a back seat, yet when someone like Anna Hazare protested, the whole country followed. A man can go on fasting for the country indefinitely, but most people are sadly still hardly affected and consider this something of a normal occurance. We talk about out ethics, our values and we're the first to break laws and bribe our way out of situations. The government can allow it's provocative rallies to cause unrest in broad daylight and they arrest a Gandhian trying to fight for the betterment of the country within minutes!

 We all needed a leader and we have found one in Anna, the man has been phenomenal in his efforts to fight corruption. The country needs to support him in his conquest. Is our personal well being a matter of a bigger concern or is the future of the country more important to us? I'm hardly a person to comment on the government, people, even anybody's integrity or anyone's ethics but my values and views have always compelled me to support the truth. It's high time we think about the country and do what we can do what we possibly can!

I'm with Anna, supporting him physically or silently, in any way I can. Are you in this fight with Anna?

Source of dates and other info:Wikipedia

. . . Peace