Day 365-2011 : Adieu...

Adieu to a remarkable year.  A year in which the power of collective action was demonstrated time and again.  Throughout the year.  If there was one word which could correctly encapsulate the tone of the entire year of 2011, it was revolution.

2011 will be remembered as the year in which the clamor for change was heard the loudest.  People protested against everything.  From atrocities of dictators to the corruption of politicians; from women objecting to being branded as sluts based on how they dressed to people objecting to the social and economic inequality by occupying Wall Street.  Some of these were highly successful, but some weren't so.  The world today is definitely a different place after the Arab Spring.  The ouster of at least four dictators till date and a few more under siege are clear signs of people embracing the path of non-violent protests...and winning.  I grew up on news reports of the violent struggles in Lebanon and Palestine.  I grew up on reports of Pakistan attacking the sovereign borders of this country. Over the years I have watched the various extremist actions by Islamic groups across the world.  However, in 2011, it was so refreshing to see the Islamic populace adopting non-violence as the core principle of their protests across the world.  Of course, the perennial mascot of Islamic violence himself, Osama-bin-Laden, was killed this year.

Closer home, the story has been much the same.  One scam after another being unearthed by the activism of the media and the judiciary, and people in high places of power being held responsible for it, gave the common man in India a common cause to fight against, corruption.  True, corruption was not invented this year and it was certainly not discovered by Anna Hazare.  Anna and the India Against Corruption movement just grabbed the opportunity created by the prevailing mood of disillusionment caused by the multiple scams.  It was an amazing movement with a momentum of its own, causing the government of the day to grumble, mumble, stumble and tumble for one reason or the other on a daily basis.  For once the might of a government in power was dwarfed by a people's movement and was found wanting.  It was like a rabbit caught in the headlights, not withstanding the feeble, and sometimes questionable, attempts at redemption by its favorite crisis managers.

The financial services industry was not only hit by world-wide recession but also people power.  Beginning in Wall Street, groups of activists protested against the greed of the financial services sector which has ruined many economies, across the major financial centers in the world.  Occupy Dalal Street was also on the schedule, but the protest lasted for less than an hour when the 40 odd protesters were bundled off to preventive custody!  Typical of Mumbai, nobody could care less.  The looming crisis in Europe has caused discontent among its citizens as well.  People across the various countries comprising the European Union protested, either against the imposed austerity measures or against the funding of weaker countries in the union.  

However, the one common thread across all of this has been uncertainty.  The situation in Europe is still very uncertain, so is the case with the India Against Corruption and its movement for the Lokpal Bill.  Some of the Arab countries which were 'liberated' from the clutches of the various dictators, are still grappling with the problem of finding viable alternatives.  This sense of uncertainty will, I think, be the biggest challenge for the new year.  Clearly, the year 2012 is going to be a difficult one for the world, with the financial crisis and slowdown showing no signs improvement.  Political stress across the world can only contribute to it and make it worse.  Did somebody say that the world is coming to an end in 2012 as well?

Personally, it is time again for me to review my resolutions and goals which I set for myself at the beginning of the last year.  With that objective, I did go through my post on this blog on the first day of 2011.  Having read through it, I find that, all that I have listed there, are still valid resolutions and goals.  Not that I haven't achieved any of them.  I feel that I have made significant progress on most of them, however, I realize that I could do more.  Also, I am ending the year with a tick in the box for something that I have always wanted to do...a road trip to Ahmedabad from Mumbai!  I loved the 8 hour drive and am gearing up for the drive back tomorrow.

So, there you go...my resolutions for the coming year are not very different from those that I made at the beginning of the last year.  Which was the case last year as well!  After all isn't this blog all about the sense of Deja Vu?!

Finally, I wish you and your loved ones a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012.  For those of you who plan to party hard tonight to ring in the new year, please do so responsibly and have a great time!

Take care!

Day 240-2011 : A Pregnant Victory

It is the flavour of the season and hence has found a place on this blog too.

Anna Hazare and his India Against Corruption movement have just completed round 2 of their battle against the politicians, in and out of power.  Anna broke his 288-hours long fast earlier this morning on the back of the Indian parliament passing a resolution yesterday to agree 'in principle', to his 3 key demands on the content of the bill.  Thanks to Tata Sky, I haven't been able to track the various developments related to the movement for the last 2 days.  I have been depending on the more 'old school' method of consuming news in the last two days, the morning newspapers.

My sense of the the mood that prevails in the country, from what I read in the papers every morning, is one of jubilation.  The movement has been projected as the common man's fight against the powerful egalitarian class.  There seems to be a sense of achievement and empowerment in people at large, due to the developments of the last few days leading to the Anna breaking his fast this morning.  A great victory for democracy!

Or is it? 

Earlier last week I found myself debating the pros and cons of the 'Anna Methodology' with a few of my colleagues.  I found myself questioning the tactics adopted by the social activist and his team.  Mind you, I am all for the cause.  I strongly believe that corruption is like termites, eating into the foundations of our social systems and rendering them hollow.  And I fully support a movement aimed at making the laws in this country strong to rid us of the scourge of corruption.  However, to dictate terms to a democratic institution like the parliament for calling off the fast, to me, is equivalent to blackmail.  More importantly, it sets a dangerous precedent in a country like ours.  It can result in a free for all.  It concerns me.  And it should concern you.

There are voices within the core of Team Anna as well who feel the same way.  Justice Santosh Hegde has expressed similar views in public and not surprisingly he is no longer part of the core team.  I am sure, Justice Hegde, like me, sees an element of populism in the movement.  Anna and his team at times appear to be playing to the gallery, a rather large one too!  Anna's movement and fasts have been compared to the ones undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi.  I think there is a fundamental difference between the two.  Mahatma Gandhi never allowed a situation of 'me versus you' to develop when he agitated...the movement and the fasts focused on the causes. 

My argument with my colleagues was that in any negotiation it is not advisable to take an extreme stand as a starting point.  It gives very little room to manoeuvre to arrive at a 'win-win' solution.  Moreover, it results in a loss of face.  From my perspective, though the country at large might have forgotten it, Team Anna's main demand when he embarked on the fast was to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill in the parliament before August 30.  Anna has not been able to achieve that. 

What has been achieved is a 'pregnant victory' which promises more than it delivers.  For the sake of the strong democratic traditions of this country, I certainly hope that it finally does deliver.

Take care.

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!