Gandhian Tenets of Satyagraha Vis-a-vis Anna'

Dear Brothers n Sisters ,
I beg to differ from the majority who stand behind the shadow of Anna and his so-called Civil society team…Let me espouse my views with the aid from Gandhian tenets.. his original speeches..texts n other such bibliography. Please dont get fired up..Kindly peruse the text completely b4 jumping into conclusions.

Hereinafter in this text , Gandhian Satyagraha will be coded as GS and that of Anna’ as AS.

1) GS : Our tyranny , if we impose our will on others , will be infinitely worse than that of the handful of Englishmen who form the Bureaucracy . Ours will be a Terrorism imposed by a majority and therefore worse and really more Godless than the first.

AS : What is Team Anna doing right from the beginning ? Aren’t they trying to impose their conditionalities on the Govt ? , howsoever good , the intentions may be… Isn’t this a kinda Terrorism by a Majority ( under the camouflage of Civil society )

2) GS : Non – Violence and Truth Force is never a method of coercion , it is one of conversion . It proceeds on the active principle of Love. It is easy for you to love ur friends . But I say unto u , Love ur enemies. It is never the intention of a satyagrahi to embarrass the wrong-doer . The object is to convert , not to coerce the wrong-doer and to awaken the sense of justice in him..

AS: Both Team Anna and The GoI are in a belligerant mood.. there is a virtual Trust-deficit and mud-slinging on either side.. Anna and his team are nevertheless , fighting tooth n nail , armtwisting to bring the Govt. of the day to its knees.. Media flares up the issue and enjoys the “defeat of Govt by the Civil society” as if in a war.. Parliamentary Democracy or for that matter , Constitutional directives are interpreted in the thinker’s own ways n means.. The PM is made to cut a sorry figure in the Nation’s eyes..The media makes a mockery of PM and his team as if a team of Crony jokers at the apex is running a puppet show.. Who elected this Govt. to power ? It is WE , THE PEOPLE… Aren’t we mocking at our self-image ? Rather than persuading n winning the Hearts n Minds of the ruling power , Team Anna is stubbornly persistent on Govt . agreeing to its Jan Lokpal draft…

3) GS : A Satyagrahi will appeal to public opinion , educate public opinion , state his case calmly and coolly b4 everbody who wants to listen to him and only after he has exhausted all these avenues , will he resort to satyagraha .

AS : The Jan lokpal draft was prepared by the Bhushans father-son duo , Arvind Kejriwal et al..They came in public light as representatives of the Civil society .. But for Kiran bedi.. Hardly very few in India knew about the Bhushans.. not to mention Arvind kejriwal as a whistleblower and RTI activist..and Santhosh Hegde (as Lok ayukta) as he pulled up mining scams in Karnataka.. They least bothered to come out in public light to introduce themselves to the remote Indian . their only concern was the educated elites to join hands with them . Soon after it was drafted … Was it circulated among the Indian masses ? Lest Anna Hazare announced his fast from Jantar Mantar at Delhi , the people of India wouldn’t have known what it is all about … The mood , then was volatile for an easy ignition and quick flare-up of Anti-Corruption sentiments among the masses , as The Raja of Corruption case spread like wildfire thro ‘ the veins of India . Neither the majority of the rural masses knew what is Lokpal nor its efficacy when brought into force.. Team Anna never gave thought to a wider consensus of Public opinion to emerge.. The leviathan plank on which they vindicated their modus-operandi is tat this Lok pal was swept under the carpet for the past 40 years by successive Governments.. But for the Telecom scam ( and its paraphernalia .. CWG.. Adarsh n others ) , would the Corruption issue got a bigger face among the elites n the masses ?

4) GS : If we want to cultivate a true spirit of Democracy , we cannot afford to be intolerant . Intolerance betrays want of faith in one’s cause.
Going on Dharna is barbaric- a crude way of using coercion . The person sitting on dharna knows that he’s not going to get trampled over .. It is the worst form of violence.. humiliating the opponent. The end of Satyagraha is always an agreement , never dictation , much less humiliation of the opponent .

Sitting on dharna inside Tihar jail premises and threatening to go on an indefinite fast.. dictating terms to Govt . to pass the bill before a deadline … do these rhetorics augur well for a true satyagrahi ?

Alas ! all of a sudden , India awoke and joined hands with Team Anna as their foot soldiers.. Thanks for the Lotus revolution in the Middle East which spawned mass uprisings against tyrannical Govts. The media and the jingoistic minds portray a serious Governance deficit in India.. Oh.. really ? how does it emerge all of a sudden like a bolt out of the blue ! Were all of us in deep slumber until these Corruption scandals shook us up ? How do we fail to realize that we’re the main instruments of this evil.. Don’t we bribe the RTO official to get a license sidestepping the regular procedures? Don’t we grease the palms of the revenue officials to get a community certificate or the Traffic cops on the roads to escape penury for traffic violations ?
WE , THE PEOPLE incentivised , breeded and cultivated the corrupt and now we join as foot soldiers with Anna to fight against this evil.. Wat an ignominy !
We sell our morals and ethics for wholesale and when time comes for blame-games , we spew the filth on the Govt .machinery.. Do these Netas and Babus land in our country from space ? they were feeded by Mother India.. and If the society remains morally and physically corrupt .. how can we expect a diamond from a gutter ?

Anna has now given a clarion call for “ A Second Freedom Struggle “ .. People of all ages have already given him the de facto status of Mahatma … A jubilant mood is setting in India with people adorning the Gandhian caps and bragging on their first Jail journeys in Facebook n Twitter. We, Indians get corny at times as we lose patience and tolerance too easily.. But we dont find any fault in misusing the Truth Force i.e. Satyagraha … Due to the ill will of successive Governments since 1960s , Lok pal failed to fructify.. There is no denying the fact . But why is it that when these big scams tumbled out akin to skeletons from cupboard , we instantly rised up in unison to fight against it ? No doubt , we need an effective mechanism to curb corruption at all levels.. it needs to be multi dimensional . An over-powering , all pervasive Jan lokpal will be inefficient to handle genuine cases in the long run .

Neither do I agree with the Govt’s draft of the Lokpal .. Well said , it appears to be an Hollow draft with many loopholes.. but why did this happen ? its only beacause we are rushing up thro matters in haste . We don’t give time for any wider public consensus.. Hardly very few of the rural populace know what is Lok pal or its functions..Yet they come and share space with the so-called Civil society team to voice against corruption. The people of India want a permanent solution very soon.. They want it to be realized in their lifetime… It conspicuously shows the selfishness. We are just doing lip service , when we expect “an ivory –tower drafted Lok pal /jan lokpal bill “ to serve as an effective sustainable anti-corruption tool.. It ‘ll lose its sheen in the long run and will be of no use to the future generations. … A well drafted bill on corruption needs to meet the wider section of the populace , seek their opinion , improvise it , remodulate it to make it an effective tool and then come into force.. How long will it take ? India is on the path of rapid development and year-on-year , the quantity n quality of the literate and the educated intelligentsia is on the rise.. How long can the Govts which come to power shirk from its responsibility ? How did RTI come into force ? was it due to mass upraisals by the people ? I hope u ‘ll buy my argument that RTI is functioning quite satisfactorily despite some shortcomings and limitations in its working.

To be frank , I feel this ex-serviceman Anna Hazare is misusing Gandhiji’s potent weapon of Non-violence . Won't this set a wrong precedent by people to use Satyagraha to coerce their will upon the Govt ? Hasn't TRS leader used it to vouch for Telengana ? I vouch and espouse Anna's high ideals to uproot corruption but the means he has adopted is a farce . As Voltaire said I disagree with him but I ll fight till the end , for his right to express his dissent .