ANNA HAZARE - THE PROMISED MESSIAH IN THE GOSPEL OF DEMOCRACY

ANNA HAZARE - THE PROMISED MESSIAH IN THE GOSPEL OF DEMOCRACY

There is revolution in the air. The entire nation is currently focussed on Anna Hazare and his movement. Government is in a fix. Everyone is wondering, how the things would unfold. With every passing day, the support for Anna is swelling. This government can afford to ignore this mass uprising only by subduing it’s credibilty and incurring people’s wrath.

India is a strange democracy. Here we have the best laws, largest number of lofty ideas and one of the soundest constitutions in the world, but by contradiction, we also have the worst forms of corruption, power hungry and opportunistic politicians and a system, which is rotten and highly inefficient. On one side, country is leaping economically like a tiger ; on the other public ethics and morality are nearing their lowest ebb.

Observing this country over the last 64 years - the deteriorating levels of corruption and inefficiency, the mess of India’s political system, the failing public institutions, the rise of muscle power, the growth of casteism and communalism, - it’s a virtual journey to the worldly hell. Terms like democracy, people’s will, constitutional morality and honesty in public life, have become a sad joke, butt of laughter. People have indeed lost faith in the system. They have been seeing it, and it is highly unlikely that things are going to change much anytime in the future.

System might have failed, but that doesn’t mean the entire process and procedure of democracy is a failure. People want change, deliverance on the constitutional goals and promises, but it is amply clear with the current methods it may take a very long time to happen. Thus we see the rise of alternative democracy, we have the great Gandhian Anna Hazare, who has made it the mission of his life not just to curb corruption but also to improve electoral process and safeguard the interests of the farmers through a strong legislation. We see this aggression for a better, cleaner India coming out on the roads. It is clear that the deliverance on citizens’ needs is the touchstone of a welfare state, which in turn, is the basis of sound democracy. Anna’s movement is fighting for that very purpose, and with vigour, but at the same time in a completely non-viloent, peaceful and constitutional manner.

India’s struggle for independence from the British clutches is one of the most glorious ones in the world history. Faught under leadership of Gandhi, with the potent weapons of non-violence and strong firmness, it shook the foundations of British dominion over India. Gandhi, the half naked fakir, commanded a strength over the minds of Indian people, which was unparalleled and unprecedented in the world. It is this legacy which Anna is invoking.

If Gandhi laid the foundations of a free and moral India, then Anna can actualise real freedom for the people of this country. The storm of Anna is hugely strong and totally apolitical. Unlike the emergency movement, it does not want to replace one corrupt government, with another government (which in all likelihood would turn corrupt as well) ; rather it wants to eliminate the evil itself, to strike at the root and make real and lasting changes.

Most religions of the world have their promised saviours. It is said in Bhagwad Gita - "Whenever and wherever there is decline in religious practices and a simultaneous rise in irreligion, to re-establish righteousness and restore order, I descend to earth in human form." Christian and Islamic faiths also have their promised rescuers of humanity in Jesus and Mohammad. If we treat democracy as the new social religion of national communities, then I think our promised messiah has come. Let us all support him in whichever way we can, so that we get what is our birthright.

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