Day 113-2011 : There Is Hope!

What's he got that I ain't got!?!?!? The answer to this, these days, could well be : An 'Anna' cap!  Wearing an 'Anna Hazare' cap is the latest 'cool' thing all over the place.

The Anna Hazare Cap - Hep!

Trendy!

It has been fascinating to watch Anna Hazare and his group of crusaders orchestrate the campaign against corruption over the last few weeks.  The first time I heard about the campaign was...on Facebook, on Meera Sanyal's wall!  I had, at that moment, no idea of how big this will become.  This was 'Gandhigiri' revisited!

The core elements were the same as the original methodology.  A lone man, frail and old, using non-violence and fasting as a means to protest against the wrong-doings of all the bad men.  Anna was protesting against the political class' incestuous attempt to rig the drafting of the Lokpal Bill, which would in effect give immunity to them.  The nation exploded in spontaneous anger.  Demonstrations and protest marches and meetings were held in multiple cities across the country to support the movement.

In many senses, this was 'Gandhigiri', 21st century style.  The campaign was all over the internet.  Social networking was leveraged wonderfully! The team also came up with a novel way of enlisting support, by making a missed call!  It looked like the politicos had grossly underestimated the enduring power of Satyagraha remixed with lightning speed communication.  The government finally gave in to all the demands of the protesters, the main one being the inclusion of civil society in the committee which is drafting the Jan Lokpal Bill.

The real battle, however, begins now.  The political class, which was taken aback by the spontaneity of the campaign, is slowly regrouping and trying to hit back.  Almost every day, there is a news report of an allegation of graft or other wrong-doing against the panel members from the civil society.  What the politicians fear is not just a one-off campaign.  They fear the radical ideas of the young group of Anna's supporters.  Anna is just the mascot.  The ultimate goal of this motley group of born again crusaders like Arvind Kejriwal, the Bhushans and Kiran Bedi, is 'Direct Democracy'.  A radical concept which would empower the civil society at the lowest common denominator.  What's more, it proposes the 'Right To Recall', which could be used by the voters of a given constituency if they think their representative isn't doing a good job or is corrupt.

I think some of the ideas related to the 'Direct Democracy' concept are too extreme.  They have in fact the power to destabilise civil society.  There will need to be some moderation before these could be sold to a country as vast as India.

But this is a great start!  One of the things that I firmly believed in the past was that, a revolution can never happen in a country like India.  This campaign has done enough to change that view.  Looks like a revolution is possible. 

There will be a time when the despair, desperation and frustration swelling within the consciousness of a gagged nation will result in a revolution against all that has caused it.  There is hope! 

Take care!