Answer to Arundhati Madam

In italics is my answer to your article in Hindu about Anna Hazare

If what we're watching on TV is indeed a revolution, then it has to be one of the more embarrassing and unintelligible ones of recent times. For now, whatever questions you may have about the Jan Lokpal Bill, here are the answers you're likely to get: tick the box — (a) Vande Mataram (b) Bharat Mata ki Jai (c) India is Anna, Anna is India (d) Jai Hind.


After reading this first paragraph, I decided that the best way to answer you is to reply to all your questions. So here goes!

For completely different reasons, and in completely different ways, you could say that the Maoists and the Jan Lokpal Bill have one thing in common — they both seek the overthrow of the Indian State. One working from the bottom up, by means of an armed struggle, waged by a largely adivasi army, made up of the poorest of the poor. The other, from the top down, by means of a bloodless Gandhian coup, led by a freshly minted saint, and an army of largely urban, and certainly better off people. (In this one, the Government collaborates by doing everything it possibly can to overthrow itself.)

So according to you both Maoists and JLB* are similar in one aspect. But I find it strange that while you are such a great supporter of Maoists and even their armed struggle, you find this peaceful Satyagraha unacceptable. Looks like you would like Anna to kill some innocent police constables which of course you can then term as ‘something completely uncalled for.’

In April 2011, a few days into Anna Hazare's first “fast unto death,” searching for some way of distracting attention from the massive corruption scams which had battered its credibility, the Government invited Team Anna, the brand name chosen by this “civil society” group, to be part of a joint drafting committee for a new anti-corruption law. A few months down the line it abandoned that effort and tabled its own bill in Parliament, a bill so flawed that it was impossible to take seriously.

Thank you for understanding that the bill drafted by government is flawed! But Anna or as you call Team Anna (I prefer to call this team as India Against corruption - IAC) first sent a letter regarding Lokpal bill in December 2010 and they did so because they had no means to know about the status of RTI regarding 2G and Commonwealth games. When they did not get any response to any of these after following all the procedures laid down by the PARLIAMENT in the CONSTITUION they decided only way was to fast. We can’t wait for another 3 years to throw this government out, because then I am sure there would have been another 100 scams and more money siphoned off to some Swiss bank.

Then, on August 16th, the morning of his second “fast unto death,” before he had begun his fast or committed any legal offence, Anna Hazare was arrested and jailed. The struggle for the implementation of the Jan Lokpal Bill now coalesced into a struggle for the right to protest, the struggle for democracy itself. Within hours of this ‘Second Freedom Struggle,' Anna was released. Cannily, he refused to leave prison, but remained in Tihar jail as an honoured guest, where he began a fast, demanding the right to fast in a public place. For three days, while crowds and television vans gathered outside, members of Team Anna whizzed in and out of the high security prison, carrying out his video messages, to be broadcast on national TV on all channels. (Which other person would be granted this luxury?) Meanwhile 250 employees of the Municipal Commission of Delhi, 15 trucks, and six earth movers worked around the clock to ready the slushy Ramlila grounds for the grand weekend spectacle. Now, waited upon hand and foot, watched over by chanting crowds and crane-mounted cameras, attended to by India's most expensive doctors, the third phase of Anna's fast to the death has begun. “From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, India is One,” the TV anchors tell us.

If lodging an innocent Gandhian in the same cell as Kanimozi, Kalmadi and Raja is not enough they got a Magistrate to declare that he was a public nuisance for the next seven days. By that evening of course, the position was changed by the government after seeing the soaring public support. Now coming to your point about the “Second Freedom struggle”, I think every person has a right to say what he wants to as long as it does not hurt the sentiments of people like you. Oh by the way dear Madam, did you forget your famous “Azadi-The Only Way” speech? And now let’s discuss your argument on the lodging facilities including the doctors. I completely agree with you on this one. I am really ashamed on how our government could give him worse treatment then our national guests like Kasab. Oh maybe that’s because Anna chose not to eat any Biryani or is it because he chose not to kill any Mumbaikars?

While his means may be Gandhian, Anna Hazare's demands are certainly not. Contrary to Gandhiji's ideas about the decentralisation of power, the Jan Lokpal Bill is a draconian, anti-corruption law, in which a panel of carefully chosen people will administer a giant bureaucracy, with thousands of employees, with the power to police everybody from the Prime Minister, the judiciary, members of Parliament, and all of the bureaucracy, down to the lowest government official. The Lokpal will have the powers of investigation, surveillance, and prosecution. Except for the fact that it won't have its own prisons, it will function as an independent administration, meant to counter the bloated, unaccountable, corrupt one that we already have. Two oligarchies, instead of just one.

Whether it works or not depends on how we view corruption. Is corruption just a matter of legality, of financial irregularity and bribery, or is it the currency of a social transaction in an egregiously unequal society, in which power continues to be concentrated in the hands of a smaller and smaller minority? Imagine, for example, a city of shopping malls, on whose streets hawking has been banned. A hawker pays the local beat cop and the man from the municipality a small bribe to break the law and sell her wares to those who cannot afford the prices in the malls. Is that such a terrible thing? In future will she have to pay the Lokpal representative too? Does the solution to the problems faced by ordinary people lie in addressing the structural inequality, or in creating yet another power structure that people will have to defer to?

Well, I will be answering these two paragraphs here. I have worked in two states for the last five years. One state has a Lokayukta and one does not have and I have seen the difference, When you get caught in Bangalore by police they take the fine and give you a nice good receipt and importantly your name and license number is recorded. Cut to Chennai, cops ask a bribe depending on the clothes you are wearing, the bike you are riding, the part of the “Republic Of India” you belong to! And I remember this was the situation in Karnataka too, before the great Lokayukta Prof. Vekatachala came along!

Now Madam your analogy is this - since the crime is not decreasing even after 60years of policing why have a Police force at all? It’s a big burden on the government exchequer, yes? Of course I forgot, you support arming the villagers to fight and not arming the police. So no wonder you are not supporting Lokapal!

Considering your theory of everyone being equal in front of the constitution isn’t it hypocritical that even after 67 years, our police can’t investigate all the citizens of India. Notable exclusions are PM, Judiciary and oh yes, all our great politicians. Now why can’t we have a force which can investigate and also prosecute all these exceptional people?

Meanwhile the props and the choreography, the aggressive nationalism and flag waving of Anna's Revolution are all borrowed, from the anti-reservation protests, the world-cup victory parade, and the celebration of the nuclear tests. They signal to us that if we do not support The Fast, we are not ‘true Indians.' The 24-hour channels have decided that there is no other news in the country worth reporting.

As all of us know all these TV channels are for sheer profit and the only reason these guys are relaying each and every word of Anna says is because there are thousands and thousands of people willing to listen to it. And all the those situations you described about Republic Of India getting united as India was to oppose or to celebrate something really well meaning and also because, INDIA is fed up of corruption and hopes that something concrete is done to root this out and they see Anna has their messiah. Do I see a case of sour grapes here? C’mon – there are a few hundred lunatics who listen to you too!

‘The Fast' of course doesn't mean Irom Sharmila's fast that has lasted for more than ten years (she's being force fed now) against the AFSPA, which allows soldiers in Manipur to kill merely on suspicion. It does not mean the relay hunger fast that is going on right now by ten thousand villagers in Koodankulam protesting against the nuclear power plant. ‘The People' does not mean the Manipuris who support Irom Sharmila's fast. Nor does it mean the thousands who are facing down armed policemen and mining mafias in Jagatsinghpur, or Kalinganagar, or Niyamgiri, or Bastar, or Jaitapur. Nor do we mean the victims of the Bhopal gas leak, or the people displaced by dams in the Narmada Valley. Nor do we mean the farmers in NOIDA, or Pune or Haryana or elsewhere in the country, resisting the takeover of the land.

Thankfully something in your article we both agree on!

Media does not show all these people you mentioned, but I am not sure you never ask the question – who is responsible and what is the solution. Let me help you with both these answers, one by one.


• Irom Sharmila/Mizoram issue/AFSA: There is a law which allows the army to kill but dear Madam, could you please give me the number of people killed by Indian Army? Or better yet please give me a ratio of the number of innocent people killed as compared to the number of army jawans killed. Oh by the way, even in Kashmir during the last unrest, people killed by Army was zero while the state police had to kill 100 odd people.


• Mining Mafias: I am heavily surprised you did not include the people of Bellary. Or is it purposely excluded because the entire illegal mafia was shut down by a team Anna member and a Lokayukta Mr Hegde?


• Bhopal Gas Leak: Thank you for bringing up this topic. When the international Ambulance chasers (Lawyers who wait for an international accident to happen) made the company pay millions as compensation, isn’t it strange that nothing reached the desired people and the major culprits here, Arjun Singh and the Great Mr Rajiv Gandhi shipped all the money to some Tax heaven? May be a letter to the Lokayukta would have saved some money. (Oh ya no Lokpal in MP )


• Narmada Valley Project: A letter to Lokayukta of Gujarat would have addressed the issue, Understanding this pretty well, Mr Modi kept the post of Lokayukta open, and since there is no law which makes it mandatory, he made use of the hole in the law.


• Noida, Pune, Haryana : Again all states where no Lokayukta is present!!!

‘The People' only means the audience that has gathered to watch the spectacle of a 74-year-old man threatening to starve himself to death if his Jan Lokpal Bill is not tabled and passed by Parliament. ‘The People' are the tens of thousands who have been miraculously multiplied into millions by our TV channels, like Christ multiplied the fishes and loaves to feed the hungry. “A billion voices have spoken,” we're told. “India is Anna.”

Tens of thousands - are you crazy! Get real, come out and see! In just Bangalore there were more than tens of thousands. I am not debating on the numbers; I thought you were only dumb but now I think you are blind and deaf to the voice of all the people too!

Who is he really, this new saint, this Voice of the People? Oddly enough we've heard him say nothing about things of urgent concern. Nothing about the farmer's suicides in his neighbourhood, or about Operation Green Hunt further away. Nothing about Singur, Nandigram, Lalgarh, nothing about Posco, about farmer's agitations or the blight of SEZs. He doesn't seem to have a view about the Government's plans to deploy the Indian Army in the forests of Central India.

Very good question - Who is he? He is just a retired army jawan who actually left everything including his family, to change the system. He first changed his village and then challenged the Maharastara Government 15 times and then RTI and now is campaigning for the Jan Lokpal Bill. I think that’s enough of an introduction, and Madam more than anything, he is a citizen of India, so he has the right to ask the question. When you have not done anything that is qualified – your talks of splitting India and freeing Kashmir and still escape prosecution I think he is more than qualified to ask where his and his fellow country men’s hard earned tax money goes.

As far as I know, this great person is not going to stop after Jan lok pal bill, just like Gandhi dint stop after the Civil Disobedience Movement. May be SEZ are next but till then lets get Lokpal bill right.

He does however support Raj Thackeray's Marathi Manoos xenophobia and has praised the ‘development model' of Gujarat's Chief Minister who oversaw the 2002 pogrom against Muslims. (Anna withdrew that statement after a public outcry, but presumably not his admiration.)

Regarding Raj Thackerays MNS, Anna said “I do not support everything Raj Thackeray does. If violent means are adopted by MNS, it will not be in interest of a united India” I do not support Anna even on this but I don’t think Anna is now agitating for MNS’ views is he?

Regarding Modi’s comment, Anna praised his developmental model and nothing else. By the way he just stated the facts – Gujarat is the most developed state in India with an award coming from UN for the best administered state. May be you can shout some slogans against UN too. If somebody is talking about convicts in communal violence than yes Modi has to be prosecuted but let’s apply that to all - Pawar during the bombay blast of 1992, Tytler for ethnic cleansing of Sikhs et al. The reason they are not yet behind bars is because Police have no permission to investigate these people. Any more reason for Lokpal?

Despite the din, sober journalists have gone about doing what journalists do. We now have the back-story about Anna's old relationship with the RSS. We have heard from Mukul Sharma who has studied Anna's village community in Ralegan Siddhi, where there have been no Gram Panchayat or Co-operative society elections in the last 25 years. We know about Anna's attitude to ‘harijans': “It was Mahatma Gandhi's vision that every village should have one chamar, one sunar, one kumhar and so on. They should all do their work according to their role and occupation, and in this way, a village will be self-dependant. This is what we are practicing in Ralegan Siddhi.” Is it surprising that members of Team Anna have also been associated with Youth for Equality, the anti-reservation (pro-“merit”) movement? The campaign is being handled by people who run a clutch of generously funded NGOs whose donors include Coca-Cola and the Lehman Brothers. Kabir, run by Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, key figures in Team Anna, has received $400,000 from the Ford Foundation in the last three years. Among contributors to the India Against Corruption campaign there are Indian companies and foundations that own aluminum plants, build ports and SEZs, and run Real Estate businesses and are closely connected to politicians who run financial empires that run into thousands of crores of rupees. Some of them are currently being investigated for corruption and other crimes. Why are they all so enthusiastic?

What has the RSS done that it is being treated like a terrorist organization? You share the dias and give inflammatory speech with the founders of JKLF a terrorist organization in the nation’s capital – is that okay? What you said is 100 percent correct - no elections in Ralegan Siddhi, but also there is no liquor, food sufficiency and also milk production and also contrary to what you say, he has tried to eradicate caste system by arranging inter-caste marriages.

I am all for Youth for equality. Whats wrong with that? As for the Kabir foundation, I have no idea about its accounts but I do know that Arvind Kejriwal has just 3 pants and 3 shirts, he’s an ex Income tax commissioner who could have led a life full of enjoyment but, quit his job and is fighting for the people of the country. And please be specific when you say that the corporates are being investigated, I don’t think Ford and Coco cola are being investigated. The corporations are Aircel, Sun, Unitech and some bogus companies belonging to politicians or their relatives. How did all these politicians get away with such big corporate crimes, anyway? Answer is simple - when you are the member of parliament you can’t be investigated! More reason for Lokapal I think!

Madam on the same lines I can also say that since you have all your views either pro Pakistan or Pro China it can very well be claimed that you are being funded by Pakistan and China. Just claiming!

Remember the campaign for the Jan Lokpal Bill gathered steam around the same time as embarrassing revelations by Wikileaks and a series of scams, including the 2G spectrum scam, broke, in which major corporations, senior journalists, and government ministers and politicians from the Congress as well as the BJP seem to have colluded in various ways as hundreds of thousands of crores of rupees were being siphoned off from the public exchequer. For the first time in years, journalist-lobbyists were disgraced and it seemed as if some major Captains of Corporate India could actually end up in prison. Perfect timing for a people's anti-corruption agitation. Or was it?

Please get your facts right madam - 2g was revealed thanks to RTI which was got after 15 years of relentless fight by Kabir, Anna and co. Now you would say the timing was stage managed. I would say, if it was then good job Mr Anna. You know steel bends easily when its hot!

At a time when the State is withdrawing from its traditional duties and Corporations and NGOs are taking over government functions (water supply, electricity, transport, telecommunication, mining, health, education); at a time when the terrifying power and reach of the corporate owned media is trying to control the public imagination, one would think that these institutions — the corporations, the media, and NGOs — would be included in the jurisdiction of a Lokpal bill. Instead, the proposed bill leaves them out completely.

Yes that is because all these bodies - The corporations, the media and the NGOs can be investigated, prosecuted without any permission by even State police. Even a corporator enjoys immunity in our great constitution. I do not understand when simple people like me can understand this fact how come your hyper active brain didnt realize this.

Now, by shouting louder than everyone else, by pushing a campaign that is hammering away at the theme of evil politicians and government corruption, they have very cleverly let themselves off the hook. Worse, by demonising only the Government they have built themselves a pulpit from which to call for the further withdrawal of the State from the public sphere and for a second round of reforms — more privatisation, more access to public infrastructure and India's natural resources. It may not be long before Corporate Corruption is made legal and renamed a Lobbying Fee.

For the past 67 years the government has put his hands where it should not have. Do you expect a country which cannot run an airline company (air India, Indian airlines) to run a country? Is there anything left to demonize the government?

I have explained why the NGOs are not included in the Lokpal, and I am sure if they are included also Team Anna would not have any problem.

Will the 830 million people living on Rs.20 a day really benefit from the strengthening of a set of policies that is impoverishing them and driving this country to civil war?

This awful crisis has been forged out of the utter failure of India's representative democracy, in which the legislatures are made up of criminals and millionaire politicians who have ceased to represent its people. In which not a single democratic institution is accessible to ordinary people. Do not be fooled by the flag waving. We're watching India being carved up in war for suzerainty that is as deadly as any battle being waged by the warlords of Afghanistan, only with much, much more at stake

Finally you conclude by not giving any solution. You say in your conclusion that for all the problems that are facing India politicians are responsible, yet you are against a law which will basically establish a police force which tackles the corrupt politicians. Is it a case of sour grapes?

Infact madam please introspect why so many people are supporting Anna and not you. It is not because they think that Anna’s bill is better. I am sure people 80 percent don’t even know the difference. It is just because they see more of themselves in Anna and not in your crocodile tears.