August 21st 2011
School dropout Anna Hazare’s success against our Cambridge educated Prime Minister is visible proof of the saying that whatever one says about India, the opposite is equally true.
The Anna Hazare movement has exposed the systemic fault in Indian Democracy as it exists today. He and many others call the movement the second battle for freedom.
As has been observed earlier in this column, the freedom won in 1947 was only partial. The bulk of change was taken up by ‘Transfer of Power’ from white British to what we call Ibney (sons of) Macaulay, a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, opinions, morals and intellect.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh asserts his ‘made in Cambridge’ tag. He has degrees from some of the most prestigious institutions in the West. This has not prevented him from claiming an Assamese domicile and he has represented the state in Rajya Sabha for some four terms. In between, he stood for and lost a Lok Sabha election from New Delhi. All this shows that he is able to ‘adjust’ and ‘compromise’ in order to come to power and exercise it in whatever manner he deems fit. This proves that he is English in ‘opinions, morals and intellect,’ as he treads the path of Robert Clive and Warren Hastings.
The government draft of the Lokpal Bill is in the best English tradition and echoes the mind set shown in the trial and execution of Raja Nand Kumar. The raja accused Warren Hastings of corruption and malpractice. He was implicated in a case of forgery, tried under a law still to be introduced in India and was finally hanged.
India is run by those in the Parliament who after being elected to either Rajya Sabha or Lok Sabha are supported by people who have won a place in the services, such as the administrative service in a competitive examination.
It is a curious fact that Anna himself is not even a matriculate. He is a school dropout. His success against the prime minister only proves the truth of the adage, ‘whatever you say about India, the opposite is equally true.’
Two of the closest associates of Hazare, Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal, are from the services and were recruited through competition, namely the Indian Police Service and the Indian Revenue Service. They are passionate in their demand for change as they are convinced that the present system is not serving the cause of the people of India.
There is talk of hunger strikes, courting arrest and facing police brutality, including laathies and bullets. Perhaps it is time to go back to our philosophical roots. Here, poetry can help us. The verse for the day is of Sufi origin. It should be mulled over in an attempt to clear our minds of what exists and to prepare the way for change.
हर क़ौम रास्त राहे दीने ऒ क़िबला गाहे; मन क़िबला रास्त कर्दम बर सिम्ते कज्कुलाहे (Every community, faith or persuasion seeks out and determines what it considers to be the straight and narrow path to salvation. My own salvation lies in setting the direction towards the one who wears the headdress askew!)
This verse is considered to be contemporary of the life and times of Hazrat Nizamuddin Awlia and Amir Khusro, between 13th and 14th centuries. This was the time of great churning and debate on the issue of being and becoming. The bulk of the population worshipped idols and the rulers were iconoclasts. The verse came from Shaikh Nizamuddin Awlia who witnessed a Brahmin performing daily rituals of his faith by bathing in the river and worshipping a deity. The Shaikh, duly impressed, is said to have uttered the first line: हर क़ौम रास्त राहे दीने ऒ क़िबला गाहे (Every community, faith or persuasion seeks out and determines what it considers to be the straight and narrow path to salvation.)
Perhaps the time has come to have a Second Constituent Assembly. A beginning can be made by tabling the Anna Hazare draft on the Lokpal Bill, along with that of the government and debating the merits/demerits of both.
Independent India has survived many crises, including military defeat and there is no reason to lose hope because the obduracy of government has been resisted successfully by an unarmed non-violent protestor.