11:14 AM
Pundit
Skeptics like columnist Tavleen Singh who appeared last night on Times Now to inform us she knows lots of corrupt NGOs and the CNN-IBN editor's desk and "expert" reports who say the current Jan Lokpal draft proposed by India Against Corruption would "substitute one monster for another" don't seem to be paying attention to the movement. Lets hear it straight from the horse's mouth. See relevant section underlined in bold below.
Full text of Anna Hazare letter to the Prime Minister:
India Against Corruption
A-119, Kaushambi, Ghaziabad . 201010. UP Ph: 09868069953
www.indiaagainstcorruption.org
Date: April 6, 2011 To,
Dr. Manmohan Singh,
Hon'ble Prime Minister of India
New Delhi
Dear Dr. Singh, I have started my indefinite fast at Jantar mantar. I had invited you also to fast and pray for a corruption free India on 5th April. Though I did not receive any reply from you, I am hopeful that you must have done that.
I am pained to read and hear about government's reaction to my fast. I consider it my duty to clarify the points raised on behalf of Congress party and the government by their spokespersons, as they appear in media:
1. It is being alleged that I am being instigated by some people to sit on this fast. Dear Manmohan Singh ji, this is an insult to my sense of wisdom and intelligence. I am not a kid that I could be "instigated" into going on an indefinite fast. I am a fiercely independent person. I take advice from many friends and critics, but do what my conscience directs me to do. It is my experience that when cornered, governments resort to such malicious slandering. I am pained that the government, rather than addressing the issue of corruption, is trying to allege conspiracies, when there are none.
2. It is being said that I have shown impatience. Dear Prime Minister, so far, every government has shown complete insensitivity and lack of political commitment to tackling corruption. 62 years after independence, we still do not have independent and effective anti-corruption systems. Very weak versions of Lokpal Bill were presented in Parliament eight times in last 42 years. Even these weak versions were not passed by Parliament. This means, left to themselves, the politicians and bureaucrats will never pass any law which subjects them to any kind of objective scrutiny. At a time, when the country has witnessed scams of unprecedented scale, the impatience of the entire country is justified. And we call upon you, not to look for precedents, but show courage to take unprecedented steps.
3. It is being said that I have shown impatience when the government has "initiated" the process. I would urge you to tell me - exactly what processes are underway?
a. You say that your Group of Ministers are drafting the anti-corruption law. Many of the members of this Group of Ministers have such a shady past that if effective anticorruption systems had been in place, some of them would have been behind bars. Do you want us to have faith in a process in which some of the most corrupt people of this country should draft the anti-corruption law?
b. NAC sub-committee has discussed Jan Lokpal Bill. But what does that actually mean? Will the government accept the recommendations of NAC sub-committee? So far, UPA II has shown complete contempt for even the most innocuous issues raised by NAC.
c. I and many other friends from India Against Corruption movement wrote several letters to you after 1st December. I also sent you a copy of Jan Lokpal Bill on 1st December. We did not get any response. It is only when I wrote to you that I will sit on an indefinite fast, we were promptly invited for discussions on 7th March. I wonder whether the government responds only to threats of indefinite fast. Before that, representatives of India Against Corruption had been meeting various Ministers seeking their support for the Jan Lokpal Bill. They met Mr Moily also and personally handed over copy of Jan Lokpal to him. A few hours before our meeting with you, we received a phone call from Mr Moily's office that the copy of Jan Lokpal Bill had been misplaced by his office and they wanted another copy. This is the seriousness with which the government has dealt with Jan Lokpal Bill.
d. Dear Dr Manmohan Singh ji, if you were in my place, would you have any faith in the aforesaid processes? Kindly let me know if there are any other processes underway. If you still feel that I am impatient, I am happy that I am because the whole nation is feeling impatient at the lack of credible efforts from your government against corruption.
4. What are we asking for? We are not saying that you should accept the Bill drafted by us. But kindly create a credible platform for discussions . a joint committee with at least half members from civil society suggested by us. Your spokespersons are misleading the nation when they say that there is no precedent for setting up a joint committee. At least seven laws in Maharashtra were drafted by similar joint committees and presented in Maharashtra Assembly. Maharashtra RTI Act, one of the best laws of those times, was drafted by a joint committee. Even at the centre, when 25,000 tribals came to Delhi two years ago, your government set up a joint committee on land issues within 48 hours. You yourself are the Chairperson of that committee. This means that the government is willing to set up joint committees on all other issues, but not on corruption. Why?
5. It is being said that the government wants to talk to us and we are not talking to them. This is utterly false. Tell me a single meeting when you called us and we did not come. We strongly believe in dialogue and engagement. Kindly do not mislead the country by saying that we are shunning dialogue. We request you to take some credible steps at stemming corruption. Kindly stop finding faults and suspecting conspiracies in our movement. There are none. Even if there were, it does not absolve you of your responsibilities to stop corruption.
With warm regards,
(K B Hazare)
To quote a supporter at Jantar Mantar last night, "when the people take to the streets, the center of power shifts from the government to the people." Do skeptics not realize that in the balance, India Against Corruption is not the side that suffers a public trust deficit right now? There is an acute sense of frustration that has been building up for several months over multiple corruption scandals touching anyone who owns a phone or flies on an airplane or aspires to home ownership or quite simply, pays taxes to the Indian treasury.
Anna Hazare has managed to attract and hold national attention because he provides a clean apolitical platform to channel each citizen's outrage into a focused, determined, collective communique for tangible action through an entirely non-violent and legitimate method. The composition of the crowd speaking up and exercising their democratic franchise to hold elected public officials accountable overcomes familiar political divisions of age, gender, religion, language, location, and wealth.
The spark is lit and won't flicker out. At this point in the movement, it does not matter that some of the newer supporters do not know the details of the Lokpal bill. The movement is larger than one anti-corruption bill because in fact, there isn't just one. Despite several high profile cases of deaths and harassment in the past decade, India still hasn't put together a good bill to protect whistle-blowers either.
Right now, what matters is that the people care. Loudly. Visibly. Exponentially. You might call it an international wildfire.
Full text of Anna Hazare letter to the Prime Minister:
India Against Corruption
A-119, Kaushambi, Ghaziabad . 201010. UP Ph: 09868069953
www.indiaagainstcorruption.org
Date: April 6, 2011 To,
Dr. Manmohan Singh,
Hon'ble Prime Minister of India
New Delhi
Dear Dr. Singh, I have started my indefinite fast at Jantar mantar. I had invited you also to fast and pray for a corruption free India on 5th April. Though I did not receive any reply from you, I am hopeful that you must have done that.
I am pained to read and hear about government's reaction to my fast. I consider it my duty to clarify the points raised on behalf of Congress party and the government by their spokespersons, as they appear in media:
1. It is being alleged that I am being instigated by some people to sit on this fast. Dear Manmohan Singh ji, this is an insult to my sense of wisdom and intelligence. I am not a kid that I could be "instigated" into going on an indefinite fast. I am a fiercely independent person. I take advice from many friends and critics, but do what my conscience directs me to do. It is my experience that when cornered, governments resort to such malicious slandering. I am pained that the government, rather than addressing the issue of corruption, is trying to allege conspiracies, when there are none.
2. It is being said that I have shown impatience. Dear Prime Minister, so far, every government has shown complete insensitivity and lack of political commitment to tackling corruption. 62 years after independence, we still do not have independent and effective anti-corruption systems. Very weak versions of Lokpal Bill were presented in Parliament eight times in last 42 years. Even these weak versions were not passed by Parliament. This means, left to themselves, the politicians and bureaucrats will never pass any law which subjects them to any kind of objective scrutiny. At a time, when the country has witnessed scams of unprecedented scale, the impatience of the entire country is justified. And we call upon you, not to look for precedents, but show courage to take unprecedented steps.
3. It is being said that I have shown impatience when the government has "initiated" the process. I would urge you to tell me - exactly what processes are underway?
a. You say that your Group of Ministers are drafting the anti-corruption law. Many of the members of this Group of Ministers have such a shady past that if effective anticorruption systems had been in place, some of them would have been behind bars. Do you want us to have faith in a process in which some of the most corrupt people of this country should draft the anti-corruption law?
b. NAC sub-committee has discussed Jan Lokpal Bill. But what does that actually mean? Will the government accept the recommendations of NAC sub-committee? So far, UPA II has shown complete contempt for even the most innocuous issues raised by NAC.
c. I and many other friends from India Against Corruption movement wrote several letters to you after 1st December. I also sent you a copy of Jan Lokpal Bill on 1st December. We did not get any response. It is only when I wrote to you that I will sit on an indefinite fast, we were promptly invited for discussions on 7th March. I wonder whether the government responds only to threats of indefinite fast. Before that, representatives of India Against Corruption had been meeting various Ministers seeking their support for the Jan Lokpal Bill. They met Mr Moily also and personally handed over copy of Jan Lokpal to him. A few hours before our meeting with you, we received a phone call from Mr Moily's office that the copy of Jan Lokpal Bill had been misplaced by his office and they wanted another copy. This is the seriousness with which the government has dealt with Jan Lokpal Bill.
d. Dear Dr Manmohan Singh ji, if you were in my place, would you have any faith in the aforesaid processes? Kindly let me know if there are any other processes underway. If you still feel that I am impatient, I am happy that I am because the whole nation is feeling impatient at the lack of credible efforts from your government against corruption.
4. What are we asking for? We are not saying that you should accept the Bill drafted by us. But kindly create a credible platform for discussions . a joint committee with at least half members from civil society suggested by us. Your spokespersons are misleading the nation when they say that there is no precedent for setting up a joint committee. At least seven laws in Maharashtra were drafted by similar joint committees and presented in Maharashtra Assembly. Maharashtra RTI Act, one of the best laws of those times, was drafted by a joint committee. Even at the centre, when 25,000 tribals came to Delhi two years ago, your government set up a joint committee on land issues within 48 hours. You yourself are the Chairperson of that committee. This means that the government is willing to set up joint committees on all other issues, but not on corruption. Why?
5. It is being said that the government wants to talk to us and we are not talking to them. This is utterly false. Tell me a single meeting when you called us and we did not come. We strongly believe in dialogue and engagement. Kindly do not mislead the country by saying that we are shunning dialogue. We request you to take some credible steps at stemming corruption. Kindly stop finding faults and suspecting conspiracies in our movement. There are none. Even if there were, it does not absolve you of your responsibilities to stop corruption.
With warm regards,
(K B Hazare)
To quote a supporter at Jantar Mantar last night, "when the people take to the streets, the center of power shifts from the government to the people." Do skeptics not realize that in the balance, India Against Corruption is not the side that suffers a public trust deficit right now? There is an acute sense of frustration that has been building up for several months over multiple corruption scandals touching anyone who owns a phone or flies on an airplane or aspires to home ownership or quite simply, pays taxes to the Indian treasury.
Anna Hazare has managed to attract and hold national attention because he provides a clean apolitical platform to channel each citizen's outrage into a focused, determined, collective communique for tangible action through an entirely non-violent and legitimate method. The composition of the crowd speaking up and exercising their democratic franchise to hold elected public officials accountable overcomes familiar political divisions of age, gender, religion, language, location, and wealth.
The spark is lit and won't flicker out. At this point in the movement, it does not matter that some of the newer supporters do not know the details of the Lokpal bill. The movement is larger than one anti-corruption bill because in fact, there isn't just one. Despite several high profile cases of deaths and harassment in the past decade, India still hasn't put together a good bill to protect whistle-blowers either.
Right now, what matters is that the people care. Loudly. Visibly. Exponentially. You might call it an international wildfire.
4 comments:
wonderfully put in the right perspective!
Thanks for dropping by, magiceye! Glad you liked the article.
"when the people take to the streets, the center of power shifts from the government to the people."
Should be true in an ideal democracy.
23rd February 2011, 1 lakh (yes, much more than what anna hazare brought to the streets!) trade union workers staged a huge rally in th national capital. Did the centre of power shift? were all demands met?
There's a lot more than what meets the eye... of which "movements" are convenient to be supported, bothby the government and by the news media. And, the unassuming citizen falls for the false hysteria. Just my view, based on some facts.
You might like:
http://ruhisonal.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/whose-media-is-it-anyways/
Hi Ruhi.
Thanks very much for dropping by.
Union negotiation protests with a protest against mass corruption in the context of several scams across multiple sectors and negatively affecting the Indian treasury that is meant to serve the welfare of the poorest and most vulnerable is not a equal comparison. And I really don't understand how one can speak of this issue as "false hysteria". Did you forget about the last one year of headlines? The people who turned out to support Anna Hazare haven't. Paani sar se upar jaa chuka hai. To quote a supporter from the second day in Delhi, this is not for me or you, this is for India. This particular movement overcomes special interest groups. That is the attraction for most supporters, especially worldwide.
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