A sublime instance of people power at work
At a time when violent revolutions are rocking the Middle East sending despotic leaders scurrying for cover from their own people, Indians threw up their own brand of non violent revolution forcing their government to its knees and agreeing to do something which successive governments have avoided for as many as 42 years.
The obvious big difference between the Middle Eastern revolutions and the one in India was that the latter was completely non violent – a true demonstration of what sheer people power can achieve in the world’s largest democracy. Not a shot was fired, not a rock hurled, no one killed, none hurt, in stark contrast to the mindless violence innocent people have been subjected to as the revolutions in the Middle East unfolded.
Indians’ high threshold of tolerance – which some might somewhat justifiably choose to dub a high degree of apathy, depending which way one prefers to look at it – is both their strength and weakness.
Strength because it gives them a tremendous capacity to endure hardship while going about their lives as normally as possible; an almost uncanny capacity to put up with extreme inconvenience with an almost fatalistic resignation that would be hard to imagine in other democratic societies.
Weakness because this same high threshold of tolerance and the strong resilience born out of it has given their leaders the brazenness to ride rough shod all over them for the better part of India’s six decade old life as an independent nation.
Call it the mass, collective lack of political nous or a widespread disdain for the political class, the fact remains that most Indians since independence have demonstrated a low degree of interest in the manner in which the successive leaders and governments they have voted to power have governed them.
It beggars belief that successive governments have as many as eight times in the past 42 years knocked back the demand for anti corruption legislation from the Parliament – and the people endured it, all the while making sporadic protests and token demonstrations, far from coming together to force the government to take action.
All that, however, changed two weeks ago as the Anna Hazare led campaign swept across not just the country but also among Indians living everywhere in the world. The willingness to join the movement – physically, through social networking and offering whatever support possible was spontaneous and spread like a contagion.
Fuelled by modern communication technologies the support rapidly crystallised into a gargantuan snowball of a weight and dimension that the Congress led UPA government simply could not bear.
The protests spread at almost the same rapid rate as the ones in the Middle East in the previous months and caused the same kind of panic among leaders but the big difference was the Indian movement was completely non violent – a tribute to that same collective resilience and high tolerance temperament that seems to imbue the Indian psyche.
Getting the government to agree to nearly all the demands for the long overdue anti corruption bill, which seemed a virtual impossibility all these years since independence, no matter which political party was an incredible achievement for the two week old movement.
When drafted, introduced and hopefully passed in the forthcoming monsoon session of the Indian Parliament, the people of India will have the power to hold politicians to account and hopefully help prevent the scale of volume of corruption that has tainted the country’s image for many decades – most severely in the wake of the telecom licences and Commonwealth Games scandals in the past year or so.
A team comprising five government members and five from civil society, led by a chairman and a co-chairmen from the two sides are now mandated to work toward drafting a bill in the coming weeks and months.
But as Anna Hazare has no illusions about what has been touted in the media as a major victory for the activists. While it certainly is a great moment in India’s history as a democracy, as Hazare rightly said as he broke his five day old protest fast, “The real fight begins now.”
Deeply entrenched vested interests will ensure it is not all smooth sailing for the bill. Already there have been rumblings in the establishment, though no politician worth his salt will oppose the bill openly any longer – but there certainly will be ingenious attempts to thwart, delay, confuse issues and throw in a fair share of red herring as the draft meanders its way toward being finalised as a bill for introduction in the Lok Sabha.
The Jan Lokpal Bill, which could be translated as People’s Ombudsman Bill, will give the appointed ombudsman sweeping powers similar to those that law enforcement agencies such as the police possess to investigate and prosecute ministers, bureaucrats and judges over corruption charges independently – with no scope for political interference, which has been a bane of public prosecutions in India.
The new law will work under an autonomous body similar to the country’s Election Commission or its Supreme Court, which will be at all levels of government – the federal or ‘Central Government” as it is called in India down to the individual state governments.
The powers invested in these bodies will enable them to investigate charges of corruption against ministers and government officials, in a manner that is not as result oriented today.
This is a clear signal from the people to the politicians that they mean business and can no longer be taken for the ride that they have been taken for the better part of 60 years.
While it would be naïve to see it as a silver bullet to clean up India’s murky public life that has kept sober, decent and honest elements out of it because of the extreme Wild West ways of the majority of people in it, the Lok Pal Bill is undoubtedly a great start for setting the agenda for a massive clean up that has long been overdue.
The developments leading to the bill including the widespread peaceful protests around the world are ample proof what people power can achieve non violently, without a single shot fired, in the truest spirit of Mahatma Gandhi.
At a time when violent revolutions are rocking the Middle East sending despotic leaders scurrying for cover from their own people, Indians threw up their own brand of non violent revolution forcing their government to its knees and agreeing to do something which successive governments have avoided...
At a time when violent revolutions are rocking the Middle East sending despotic leaders scurrying for cover from their own people, Indians threw up their own brand of non violent revolution forcing their government to its knees and agreeing to do something which successive governments have avoided for as many as 42 years.
The obvious big difference between the Middle Eastern revolutions and the one in India was that the latter was completely non violent – a true demonstration of what sheer people power can achieve in the world’s largest democracy. Not a shot was fired, not a rock hurled, no one killed, none hurt, in stark contrast to the mindless violence innocent people have been subjected to as the revolutions in the Middle East unfolded.
Indians’ high threshold of tolerance – which some might somewhat justifiably choose to dub a high degree of apathy, depending which way one prefers to look at it – is both their strength and weakness.
Strength because it gives them a tremendous capacity to endure hardship while going about their lives as normally as possible; an almost uncanny capacity to put up with extreme inconvenience with an almost fatalistic resignation that would be hard to imagine in other democratic societies.
Weakness because this same high threshold of tolerance and the strong resilience born out of it has given their leaders the brazenness to ride rough shod all over them for the better part of India’s six decade old life as an independent nation.
Call it the mass, collective lack of political nous or a widespread disdain for the political class, the fact remains that most Indians since independence have demonstrated a low degree of interest in the manner in which the successive leaders and governments they have voted to power have governed them.
It beggars belief that successive governments have as many as eight times in the past 42 years knocked back the demand for anti corruption legislation from the Parliament – and the people endured it, all the while making sporadic protests and token demonstrations, far from coming together to force the government to take action.
All that, however, changed two weeks ago as the Anna Hazare led campaign swept across not just the country but also among Indians living everywhere in the world. The willingness to join the movement – physically, through social networking and offering whatever support possible was spontaneous and spread like a contagion.
Fuelled by modern communication technologies the support rapidly crystallised into a gargantuan snowball of a weight and dimension that the Congress led UPA government simply could not bear.
The protests spread at almost the same rapid rate as the ones in the Middle East in the previous months and caused the same kind of panic among leaders but the big difference was the Indian movement was completely non violent – a tribute to that same collective resilience and high tolerance temperament that seems to imbue the Indian psyche.
Getting the government to agree to nearly all the demands for the long overdue anti corruption bill, which seemed a virtual impossibility all these years since independence, no matter which political party was an incredible achievement for the two week old movement.
When drafted, introduced and hopefully passed in the forthcoming monsoon session of the Indian Parliament, the people of India will have the power to hold politicians to account and hopefully help prevent the scale of volume of corruption that has tainted the country’s image for many decades – most severely in the wake of the telecom licences and Commonwealth Games scandals in the past year or so.
A team comprising five government members and five from civil society, led by a chairman and a co-chairmen from the two sides are now mandated to work toward drafting a bill in the coming weeks and months.
But as Anna Hazare has no illusions about what has been touted in the media as a major victory for the activists. While it certainly is a great moment in India’s history as a democracy, as Hazare rightly said as he broke his five day old protest fast, “The real fight begins now.”
Deeply entrenched vested interests will ensure it is not all smooth sailing for the bill. Already there have been rumblings in the establishment, though no politician worth his salt will oppose the bill openly any longer – but there certainly will be ingenious attempts to thwart, delay, confuse issues and throw in a fair share of red herring as the draft meanders its way toward being finalised as a bill for introduction in the Lok Sabha.
The Jan Lokpal Bill, which could be translated as People’s Ombudsman Bill, will give the appointed ombudsman sweeping powers similar to those that law enforcement agencies such as the police possess to investigate and prosecute ministers, bureaucrats and judges over corruption charges independently – with no scope for political interference, which has been a bane of public prosecutions in India.
The new law will work under an autonomous body similar to the country’s Election Commission or its Supreme Court, which will be at all levels of government – the federal or ‘Central Government” as it is called in India down to the individual state governments.
The powers invested in these bodies will enable them to investigate charges of corruption against ministers and government officials, in a manner that is not as result oriented today.
This is a clear signal from the people to the politicians that they mean business and can no longer be taken for the ride that they have been taken for the better part of 60 years.
While it would be naïve to see it as a silver bullet to clean up India’s murky public life that has kept sober, decent and honest elements out of it because of the extreme Wild West ways of the majority of people in it, the Lok Pal Bill is undoubtedly a great start for setting the agenda for a massive clean up that has long been overdue.
The developments leading to the bill including the widespread peaceful protests around the world are ample proof what people power can achieve non violently, without a single shot fired, in the truest spirit of Mahatma Gandhi.
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