Political leaders like Gandhi and Netaji
Subhash Chandra Bose united the whole India to achieve a goal of
'Independence' from the rule of British. Whole India stand united and
followed Gandhi who set his goal straight forward without any ifs and
buts. There was no hidden agenda, no conspiracy and no vested interests,
who could have divided people. And finally we achieved our Independence
on August 15, 1947 with support of full scale Indian citizen support.
In 1975, when Allahabad High Court found
Indira Gandhi violating electoral laws, Jayprakash Narayan called for
resignation of Indira Gandhi, the then prime minister, and advocated a
social program demanding her resignation which he named 'Sampoorna
Kranti'. Instead she imposed national emergency on the midnight of 25th
June. Narayan also asked military and police to disregard
unconstitutional and immoral orders but he and his supporters including
all the various politicians were put into jail who were against Indira
Gandhi. Later emergency was lifted on January 18, 1977 and elections
were announced, but Narayan united all anti-congress parties and
politicians launching an anti-congress movement and was able to vote out
congress in elections to form first non-congress government. Again in
this movement there is no hidden agenda, no conspiracy and the aim was
crystal clear that we need to form an anti-congress government,
therefore nationwide support was available without hesitation.
June 05, 2011 a proven social activist
Anna Hazare sits on fast at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi as part of his
anti-corruption movement demanding Jan-Lokpal bill. He grabbed
nationwide attention and support, as the demand and agitation was easily
understood by everyone and they saw a leader in Anna Hazare who can
stand out with firm conviction against corrupt government. He
successfully forced government to accept their version of Jan Lokpal
bill and discuss it in a joint committee in which there will be 50%
members from side of Anna Hazare's team. Then came Baba Ramdev who began
agitation on June 04, 2011 at Ramlila Ground New Delhi. Support of Baba
Ramdev was unsure as he is a yoga Guru, therefore his yoga followers
followed his fast, rather than general public. Erring strategy and bad
planning manufactured a devastating end for this agitation and after
when police ran onto the agitators Ramdev flee from Ramlila and were
found back in Haridwar in women costumes. He made a mockery of himself
and the said movement.
Though, on the other hand Anna Hazare and
his team were gearing up for something big. Rejection of their draft
bill and irresponsiveness of government helped them to build a big mass
movement. He called for an indefinite fast from 16 August, 2011 at
Ramlila ground. This time government made strategical mistakes and
arrested Anna Hazare which provoked thousands of people to show anger
against government on his arrest, and the government forced to revert
its decision. Anna Hazare went to Ramlila ground building a huge
anti-corruption movement for introduction and acceptance of their Lokpal
version, polarizing political parties and catching imagination of
world. He emerged out as a strong leader against corruption. He got
unprecedented support because his demand was crystal clear and the goal
can be visualized by people. Later on many occasions Baba Ramdev and
Anna Hazare were seen together sharing stage.
But then came downfall. When people were
uniting on a single issue of corruption joining hands and showing their
support, Team Anna faltered on every single step. Within the team unity
and consistency was missing. People were confused by different
statements made by their team members on certain issues. For example,
statements made on Kashmir issue were the most controversial as given my
Prashant Bhusan. He also got thrashed by a certain group of people on
his statements. Similarly on political ground different statements were
given by different members showing leniency towards a political party
and going hard on other. The last hole dug by themselves in the already
dented movement when Arvind Kejriwal announced that they are going
political during their latest fast started from 29th July, 2012 which
was termed as flop. Why? Because their demands were changed, their goal
was changed. They were demanding SIT (Special Investigating Team) probe
on government's 15 sitting ministers and left their demand of Jan Lokpal
somewhere. People were confused and lost hope in the team, therefore
they kept themselves away from the fast. If this was not enough, than
later news came that Anna Hazare disbanded his team. Everything was lost
and nothing was gained. Whatever they have gained they just let it go.
They lost their support, they lost their credibility and they lost their
goal. And if whatever they have for themselves was hammered by Baba
Ramdev who sat on fast on August 11, 2012 demanding Lokpal and action
against black money, besides his closest Acharya Balkrishna was arrested
by CBI on fake passport case. But it was evident that he was fighting
an ego battle from Anna Hazare and his team in which he succeeded. He
showed up the numbers which he has behind him in support.
Many comparisons were drawn between these
movements during the agitation. By portraying two movements at the start
of this article we tried to show that in politics if there is one
single goal and one dedicated leader who can influence people and make
them understand what he want to achieve and what benefit people will
get, then he can unite everyone on political ground as well as social
background also. Both above movements had similarity of having a clear
goal which anyone can visualize. Therefore, the end result for both the
movements was successful.
Now, ongoing anti-corruption movement has
created a division among masses rather than uniting them. Anna Hazare
and Ramdev who tried to become a leader in fighting against corruption,
confused people whom to follow and whom to not. Who will make us to
achieve something against corruption and who will not? And recent
activities of Arvind Kejriwal in which he called to protest in front of
politician’s house of all political parties, shows that he now have
nothing left to do. Public who still supported them, are distancing
themselves from them continuously. Even Kiran Bedi, member of team Anna
kept herself away, provoking Kejriwal to say that she is soft on BJP
(Bhartiya Janta Party) leaving Kiran Bedi fuming.
Till now including independence revolution
whenever country had faced any political and social upheaval, common
people has come up with best the available option. All movements have
put up strong options in front of voters. This time also country is in
phase of adopting change but situation is not same as earlier times.
This time public is confused to opt any. The option they thought to be
the best, are fighting within themselves. Options they thought strong
turned out to be hollow. Whether it is congress or BJP, team Anna or
Baba Ramdev none of them were able to put a hard claim to become a
perfect option. In spite of too much noise and uproar in media across
the country nothing seems to have been achieved. Is country is in
greatest turmoil after independence with no option available?
Team-FI
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