Anna Hazare’s Drama is over – Indian Public fooled again – 29 Dec 11

City:
Vrindavan
Country:
India

In the last days we witnessed a big drama in parliament about the Lokpal bill, the new law against corruption. The ruling party gave suggestions and drafts which the opposition party strongly opposed, as it is their role in this government. In the end they passed a very weak Lokpal bill. It is like a handicapped law that is not able to do anything. People are disappointed.

Everybody watching the scenes in parliament could see that it was only drama, a theater show staged for media and public. With this outcome however everybody knows that the politicians were only doing effort to save themselves. All these politicians who have decided about this law are corrupt. They know that they are the ones to go to jail if the law that they pass is strong and effective.

It doesn’t matter whether they are in the ruling party or in the opposition or even in one of the many small parties, they will go to jail. Members of the ruling party may take the risk of losing in the next elections because they brought a useless law but they will not risk going to jail. So they all created a law that will save them but will not help our country. In front of the camera politicians of the opposition put on a big fight but in reality they all know that they are all in the same boat. The majority of the politicians of our parliament is corrupt. There is no hope that something could change through our government.

And what about the big hope of this country, Anna Hazare? Today he seems to be just another cunning politician, nothing else.

Hazare and his team had a big plan for these days: they wanted to do another fast for three days, starting on the 27th December and ending on 29th December 2011. After that they wanted to make a big campaign, filling the prisons of India with the support of the people. They called the Indian population to go to offices of ministers and to enter in buildings of official work where they are usually not allowed to go. They should remain peaceful and have themselves arrested. Anna Hazare himself was planning to go to the head of the ruling party, Sonia Gandhi’s home. Obviously there is a lot of security in that place and trespassing would lead to being arrested. They had asked the Indian public to voluntarily go to jail in order to fight against corruption.

Yesterday however, on the second day of the fast, the 28th December, they cancelled the whole campaign. The fast was cancelled as well as their plan to go to jail. Their reason? The government is cheating with this weak law and we think it is best to oppose them in the next elections. Obviously you will oppose them, that we knew before but why did you cancel the current campaign?

Some people ask whether the team Anna got money from the government and were bought. The most popular idea and what I believe is however that they did just not see enough people when they started their fast in Mumbai. About two thirds of the grounds where they were fasting were empty. This does not mean that there was nobody but it was not the overwhelming response they had expected. So they cancelled.

But why were the grounds empty? Because the Indian public had already understood that they were not really interested in fighting against corruption but in their own politics and their own benefit. They got a confirmation by this cancellation: Anna Hazare and his team want popularity and are not interested to fight against corruption if there are not millions of people visibly with them.

The media previously reported about every little step that Anna Hazare did. They greatly contributed in the success of the campaign before and I believe they did an important contribution in making his fight public. Now however I think it would be best if they just left Anna Hazare alone and ignored him and his team. We should not give further importance to him – we feel cheated and see that he did his politics for his own ambitions. It is unfortunate to see that with this amazing success in August, which was actually due to people's anger against corruption, he could not manage to keep people's faith and love for him because of his ego.

In June Baba Ramdev ran away from the fight, now Anna Hazare gave up. The innocent public of India feels fooled by so-called social activists like Anna Hazare and his team. They wasted time, money and energy and got nothing.

What will happen to our country now? Corrupt politicians will keep on sucking money out of people who have already got used to giving extra money on every corner in order to get their work done.

Anna Hazare, Corruption, Disappointment, Government, Politics

19 Replies to “Anna Hazare’s Drama is over – Indian Public fooled again – 29 Dec 11”

  1. Living in a western country with a somewhat stable governmental situation, it is very difficult for me to imagine the extend of “hope” and now “disappointment” that Indian people feel in regards to the recent political development.
    Seeing it from a general perspective, I think it is extremely hard to crack the system of corruption. If you would try to go back to the very roots of it, the solution could maybe be altruism: care about the people next to you, instead of only thinking about your own wealth.

    As simple as this solution sounds, it’s hard to realise it. I just hope that people (incl. politicians) will wake up. Rather sooner than later.

  2. All over the world we are being influenced by corrupt politicians and allowing our lives to be governed and often destroyed by them. I am happy for the people of India that Anna Hazare’s latest foolish plan has failed but what a waste of time and energy.

  3. All is cancelled. Very much disappointing this whole drama. It gives the message that they are not interested in Lokpal or a bill against corruption, just doing politics for their own ambitions. I believe all Indians who supported Anna, his team and their campaign, including me, feel cheated. For this kind of end we stood by you? It’s a shame….With the statement below, it seems he definitely has some screw lose. He invites young people who don’t want to get married. In a way he is discouraging people from getting married if they want to achieve something for their country. Why? Because he is himself unmarried? Does he think you can’t work for your country if you are married?
    It is unfortunate to see that with this amazing success in August, which was actually due to people’s anger against corruption, he could not manage to keep people’s faith and love for him because of his ego. He started thinking he is God. He won in August but now I can say Government won and he lost. Sorry, Anna Hazare you don’t have my support anymore. …… Sigh….. Wish you could be a simple man with love but you seem to be another cunning politician full of ego.
    “All young people, who wan’t to work for the country, without getting married and are ready to die for the country should write letters to me in Ralegan.” Anna

  5. It is disappointing… but still, both have been creating an awareness and THAT spirit should be kept alive and be initiated as a shared or collective consciousness. We can’t discount for a fact that these two individuals had actually DARED to challenge the system. What matters most is that they DID IT. To combat corruption isn’t the effort of one or two individuals… it takes collective effort from all quarters to be a part of it. It is also not easy to change something that has already been ‘absorbed’ into a part of the system or ‘culture’.

  7. If only the world can be free of this kind of so-called ‘politics’, it would have been a much better place to be. Politics is perhaps one of mankind’s oldest form of evil that causes much delusion and hatred amongst fellow humans. Most of the time, politics doesn’t even seem to involve any logic but mere determination or conviction based on one’s own point of view or emotions.

  8. Reason for failure of Anna’s movement is personal ambitions, feeling himself like God and giving and changing statements like politicians, many times simply nonsense. Anna became bigger than the issue of corruption. This kind of ego is enough to provoke failure. You can’t make fools out of people for too long. When they understand your game they do not support you anymore. This was the reason that not enough or not the expected amount of people turned up for his campaign this time.

  9. I can understand that maybe Anna is not very educated but in his team there are many high educated and big lawyers. If it was impossible, why would they demand it? But the problem is their demand is not genuine and pure. That’s why it can’t be fulfilled. Their actual wish is not the Lokpal bill or a fight against corruption. They are mostly interested in fulfilling their own ambitions. Truth has come out, that’s why the public refused them.

  10. Dear respected Balendu ji! I feel that Anna ji himself didn’t want to become a big name, but he automatically became because of the attention of fans world over. even before the lok pal bill issue Anna ji was fighting in the villages for the ppl’s rights. For me Anna ji is purely using the media to reach ppl, not to mke himself a celebrity. his movements have made ppl not wanting to involve in corruption issues and made the youngsters more united and aware!

  11. ‎Swami Ji Balendu I am not a fan of Anna but I think this is a little harsh on the man. I am sure that people’s opinion on corruption has not changed, nor Anna’s popularity is on wane in just two months. Delhi is too cold and people would probably not turn up because they can’t bring their families. Mumbai’s local crowd and esp south mumbaikars don’t vote that much so I doubt they would have supported Anna. It was a strategic mistake to goto MMRDA which is far away from public transport. Also the fatigue of fasts had set in due to which enough people were not interested.Also people were more interested in what was going on LokSabha rather than on MMRDA ( which ultimately brought a useless bill).
    I think there were plenty of strategic mistakes by Anna and his team but we cannot forget that no–one could ever get a crowd like him without paying a single rupee, Also because of him, the corruption came back in public agenda otherwise we would have waited for 40 more years.
    Nothwithstanding his failures, we need to respect the fact that he pulled people back into interest of the country

  12. all these ppl who dedicate their lives to make the media and ppl aware of corruption are really worth our full respect! I don’t agree with Ashvini ji that Anna ji’s efforts didn’t make us change our opinion ab corruption – it actually did change the mind of so many ppl! creating awareness is like lighting a lamp of knowledge. even I heard many ppl say ‘now I will start to pay my taxes and do less cheating against government’. it is spreading like a network and reach to ppl employed in the higher positions too. politic parties need youngsters who r against corruption and who will not support any dirty business. slowly slowly the new generation of youngsters – who are tired of corruption and of quarrels ab which state is superior to others – will take over the politics and they will rule the nation with one main interest; to unite the nation with education for all, better health and care facilities, a more clean environment with more recycling, better infrastructure, more opportunities for ppl who wants to start business or study abroad, etc. etc… inshallah, agar Bhagavan chahtey hain. it’s allready happening in europe, especially northern europe. corruption is of course existing in Europe too, bcoz some ppl are more controlled by their ego rather than heart, but it’s much less than in India n other Asian countries (bcoz of population difference).

  13. @Ananda ji, I am not sure if I said that his efforts were not great. I said that he indeed brought a change in mindset of public by bringing in the awareness and that is good enough 🙂

  14. Dear Ashvini Kumar Saxena and Ananda Karaszi, I also give him full credit for bringing up this issue of corruption and you know how much I constantly supported him. But you can see now clearly that he and his interests are not that innocent how it seemed in the beginning. You talked in another thread about his funny and strange opinions on different issues, which are not at all acceptable (We all know that I don’t need to make a list here again). I agree with you, there were also strategic mistakes. I never thought he would be such an egoistic person. See his expressions and talk. He was not like this in April. I liked him very much but he changed a lot. Since yesterday I am very disappointed when I heard he cancelled everything. He could have continued and still many would have followed and gone to jail with him but he only wanted to see many more people who worship him. He and his team have their own ambitions, not only and purely fighting against corruption. I am angry with him but I still thank him for bringing this awareness to the people of India.

  16. The Lokpal bill was not passed. This is what government and opposition wanted. How nice could it have been if Anna Hazare had not cancelled his protest and had gone on for a strong bill against corruption. People would support him definitely but this decision of cancellation has weakened the fight against corruption and brought down his popularity for sure.

  17. Don’t think that if I am angry with Anna Hazare, I will not support the fight against corruption anymore. I don’t support Anna Hazare’s and his team’s political ambitions but I will always stand by him or anybody else who will raise his voice against corruption and for the nation.

  18. Balendu, it is not and should not be that simple. Before supporting and standing by ANYBODY we have to check their credentials and motives. By blindly supporting the ‘percievedly good cause’, we might end-up firthering those people’s hidden agendas and harming in some hidden way. You can’t help justice by doing injustice, you can’t help democracy by undemocratic means.

  19. ‎Swami Ji Balendu Great words :). Vivekanada said that even Guru should be questioned. I always believed in that philosophy. Long live the cause, whoever takes it up 🙂

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