Friday, August 19, 2011

Why Anna Hazare fails to convince me.

1.) The concept of indefinite fast is good to get attention and for the concerned people to act. But, does it mean that the fast/peaceful-protest etc would continue until all the items requested are accepted by the concerned?

There appears to be some disconnect here. Assume I am convinced that capital-punishment should be enforced by the law and then start an indefinite-fast such that people take notice. Yes, it would definitely attract a set of people who think capital-punishment is right, say a crore. Does this mean the law makers should accept my terms and enforce a new bill/law ? Isn't this like twisting the arm?

India as a democratic country expects the legislative assembly, who are its people representatives to discuss, debate and finally pass any bill. The system expects that the parliament is the place where the bill would be discussed/debated out. Yes, you can definitely put your points forward through an indefinite-fast, but don't expect everything to be accepted as-is.

2.) Supporters for the bill might come from all walks of life, but it has to be noted that these people are NOT the majority of India. Population of India is around120 crore - even if 1 crore people become part of any agitation; it IS NOT THE representation of India! The representation of India as a democratic country is its elected members. From the last count, the support for Anna is in the range of thousands (6 crore mobile support supposedly)

3.) JanLokpal as a committee : After all this, if JanLokpal as an independent committee gets affected, what's the guarantee that it itself does not get corrupted ? Would we have Lokpal-Supreme committee then formed to oversee Lokpal ? Where would this end ?

3.1) Isn't this like leading to a Lokpal Dictatorship? Why do we want a parallel government to be created with so many rights?

Shouldn't we be fixing what's wrong in the current system rather than have a new committee that is above and over the parliament/judiciary ? The possible rights of JanLokpal as listed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Lokpal_Bill sounds pretty dangerous.

4.) The supporters are mostly youngsters (school goers too!) who might not be capable of absorbing the intricacies of the bill and the path followed.

4.1) On a related note, wonder how many of his supporters really understand what the difference between Lokpal and JanLokpal are and what they are really supporting for ?

I think Anna has to have more constructive discussion with the government to come out with a more effective law/committee rather just sit around in a indefinite-fast and trying to break an existing powerful democratic constitution.

3 comments:

Binu Gopalakrishna Pillai said...

Thanks dude for making me also a blogger!

http://ripplingbrooks.blogspot.com/2011/08/political-india-and-anna-hazare-effect.html

Regards,
Binu

Nitin Koshy said...

Good read from today's Hindu newspaper :

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/article2380789.ece

Mary Ann Chacko said...

Liked your post. It raised some of my concerns about the whole movement. Thought you might be interested in the following blog post- http://marginomarginalia.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/the-contradictions-in-anna-hazare%E2%80%99s-movement/