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| Anna’s fast unto death for India and Indians | | Cancer of Corruption | |
MINCING NO WORDS -- II
NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Apr 7: What is the government’s response to the extreme step Anna Hazare has taken to force the authorities to accept his demand: Setting up of a joint committee to draft the Jan Lokpal Bill? The government’s response is highly negative. Law Minister Veerapa Moily, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, to mention only a few, have urged Anna to call of his fat-unto-death and accept the government’s offer for a dialogue to end the impasse. They have taken recourse to technicalities and asked Anna to give his suggestions so that the same could be considered. In fact, they have told Anna that the government just can’t involve the people in the law-making process. In other words, they have not suggested anything concrete. They simply want Anna to end his fat-unto-death. So much so that the government has accused Anna Hazare of working under the influence of the “instigators.”
It is obvious that they and their government plus the Congress are anticipating a backlash at a time when the election process is on in five states, including West Bengal, Assam, Tamilnadu and Kerala. Their fear is not unfounded. The kind of attention the Anna’s fast has attracted at national and international level from his countrymen has undoubtedly unnerved the government. People have started haling Anna Hazare as the “Father of India” and his movement against corruption as the “second freedom struggle in India.”
As for the Congress party, its response has been highly negative and provocative. It has said: “We can’t open floodgates by including members of civil society in the committee…We cannot allow pressure tactics or blackmail to prevail. Don’t make it a prestige issue. Modus operandi adopted by Anna Hazare is unconstitutional and illegal. Indian citizens are not part of the system…” Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Manish Tiwari (Congress national spokespersons) and Satyavrat Chaturvedi (former Congress national spokesperson) have expressed these views.
What they have said has outraged the nation. What has outraged the nation all the more is the view of the Congress that the people are not part of the government. In other words, they have told Anna that the only duty of the people is to elect their representatives, that they have no right whatever to play any role n the governance of the country and that it is the government that is supreme, sovereign, the final authority and the chief determinant.
It was expected that the response of the government and the Congress would add more fuel to the fire and further anger the already rather angry Anna Hazare and his supporters across the country, and even outside India and it has actually happened.
Determined as he is to root out corruption from the country’s body-politic, Anna has written a letter to the Prime Minister(April 6). The letter is nothing but a scathing attack on him and his government. His letter, inter-alia, reads: “I am pained to read and hear about government's reaction to my fast. I consider it my duty to clarify the points raised on behalf of Congress party and the government by their spokespersons, as they appear in media. It is being alleged that I am being instigated by some people to sit on this fast. Dear Manmohan Singh ji, this is an insult to my sense of wisdom and intelligence. I am not a kid that I could be ‘instigated’ into going on an indefinite fast. I am a fiercely independent person. I take advice from many friends and critics, but do what my conscience directs me to do. It is my experience that when cornered, governments resort to such malicious slandering. I am pained that the government, rather than addressing the issue of corruption, is trying to allege conspiracies, when there are none. It is being said that I have shown impatience. Dear Prime Minister, so far, every government has shown complete insensitivity and lack of political commitment to tackling corruption. 62 years after independence, we still do not have independent and effective anti-corruption systems. Very weak versions of Lokpal Bill were presented in Parliament eight times in last 42 years. Even these weak versions were not passed by Parliament. This means, left to themselves, the politicians and bureaucrats will never pass any law which subjects them to any kind of objective scrutiny. At a time, when the country has witnessed scams of unprecedented scale, the impatience of the entire country is justified. And we call upon you, not to look for precedents, but show courage to take unprecedented steps…It is being said that the government wants to talk to us and we are not talking to them. This is utterly false. Tell me a single meeting when you called us and we did not come. We strongly believe in dialogue and engagement. Kindly do not mislead the country by saying that we are shunning dialogue. We request you to take some credible steps at stemming corruption. Kindly stop finding faults and suspecting conspiracies in our movement. There are none. Even if there were, it does not absolve you of your responsibilities to stop corruption.”
It is time for the Government of India to address the concerns as expressed by Anna Hazare. Not to do so or to mrk time would be only to provoke the nation to come on to the streets and if at all it happens and there are potent reasons to believe that it would happen, then the results would disastrous for the government and the Congress party. (Concluded)
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