In India, Fighting and Fasting Over Corruption: Choudhury
For the past few months, Anna Hazare, the septuagenarian Indian social activist, has led his country's most prominent anti-corruption movement. Last weekend, it reached a crescendo when Hazare began an indefinite fast.
Hazare was protesting the Indian government's decision to introduce a watered-down version of a bill in Parliament that would give an independent body, called the Lokpol, the power to investigate political corruption at the highest levels of government. The Lokpal Bill would assign this power to a three-member group made up of current or former senior judges.
For several months, Hazare has led a committee of activists and intellectuals trying to stop the government from weakening the bill. Team Anna, as it is popularly called, has proposed its own version of the bill that would give the Lokpal radical powers, extending to both the office of the prime minister and the judiciary. (A summary of the opposing positions can be found here.)
Hazare's version has stimulated robust debate. Some commentators think it is a much-needed antidote to corruption; others think it gives the Lokpal draconian powers.
Representatives from Team Anna and the government met in June with the intention of thrashing out their differences and preparing a single version of the bill to present to Parliament in August. But they could not reach a compromise. Earlier, in March, Hazare had called off a planned hunger strike to protest corruption. He said he'd take up the plan again if the government tabled its version of the bill, and so he has.
On Aug. 16, the day after India's 64th anniversary of independence, Hazare addressed demonstrators in two locations in New Delhi: Tihar Jail, where he was detained by the government for three days, and the grounds of Ramlila Maidan, the scene of many memorable political demonstrations over the decades.
The capital's citizens and visitors from far and wide -- many of whom had never attended a political protest before -- flocked to Ramlila Maidan to voice their agitation. They seemed moved by various factors: political disenchantment, a need for empowerment, nationalistic fervor, hero worship or just plain curiosity. With the month of Ramzan (the Muslim fasting season known elsewhere as Ramadan) coming to an end and the Hindu festival of Janmashtami soon arriving, the demonstrators were at times united in both protest and prayer.
In both New Delhi locations, Hazare said that if his team's version of the bill did not pass by Aug. 30, he would lead protestors directly to the homes of Members of Parliament (MPs).
On Aug. 23, the Indian Express reported Hazare as saying:
Now, 25 to 30 people are sitting on dharnas in front of MPs' residences. If the government does not pass the Bill by August 30, we have to intensify the protest. Protesters in thousands should gherao [surround] the residences of MPs then.
In an essay in the publication Tehelka, Shoma Chaudhury scathingly criticized the government's pusillanimity and disconnection from the Indian public. Chaudhury acknowledged that there were many flaws in Hazare's movement, but she argued that the government sparked the crisis:
In a curious way then, what the Hazare campaign has really shown up about this government is a condition almost unprecedented in Indian public life: a complete and debilitating loss of politics in its political leadership.
Politics in urban India has come to mean a dirty word. But in truth, the loss of politics is among the worst calamities that can befall a society. The art of politics is the ability to understand human nature; come up with big ideas; read a situation astutely; anticipate events; manage situations; steer through minefields; build bridges; take widely diverse people and views along; be game for both soothing words and firm action; play both statesman and strategist. Display leadership.
... At a time, then, when the country needed agile leaders with great heart and intuition, India seems to be landed with a reign of the tin men: no heart, just uni-dimensional cold-blooded intellect, clumsy actions, unnecessary polarities and a growing sense of crisis.
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