Md Mudassir Alam

Bihar badly needs a Central University offering contemporary education to all, AMU Special Centre is a good solution for many problems faced by the people of Kishanganj and Seemanchal area. Along with offering quality education, the AMU Special Centre in Kishanganj would generate employment opportunities for all sections of the society. The centre would also curtail down the mass migration happening from Bihar for education and employment. Nitish led Bihar Government is claiming itself pro development and the government itself should show enthusiasm to provide a physical shape to such proposals which would help the state and its people at great extent.

November 12, 2011 is the deadline for the Bihar Government to resolve the land transfer issue for the establishment of proposed AMU (Aligarh Muslim University) Special Centre in Kishanganj. After the successful ‘Maha Dharna’ (grand protest) called by ‘Kishanganj Education Movement’ under the leadership of Kishanganj MP Maulana Asrarul Haque on October 12, 2011, the Bihar government had come forward to find out the solution. The Purnia Division Commissioner Brajesh Mishra had invited the representatives of ‘Kishanganj Education Movement’ for talks at District Collectorate on the dharna day.
Maulana Asrarul Haque, the leader of the ‘Maha Dharna’ asked the MLAs of Kishanganj (Dr. Jawed Azad), Kochadhaman (Akhtarul Imaan), Bahadruganj (Tousif Alam) and nearby Uttar Dinjapur district of West Bengal to proceed for the talk with Commissioner. The talk ended with positive note, and the Commissioner promised to resolve the land transfer issue within 30 days. Hence, it is the duty of Bihar Government to provide the required land to AMU VC on or before November 12, 2011. As per the inputs from the key members of Kishanganj Education Movement and Bihar Government the contiguous land has been identified as per the demand of AMU VC. So we can hope for a possible solution before the stipulated time.

However, still the people keenly following the issue of AMU for past 3 years have doubt in their minds and intention of careless Bihar Government. On October 12, 2011 after the talk the Bihar Government hadn’t given anything in written to the representatives of ‘Kishanganj Education Movement’ about the transfer of land in 30 days. In fact, media reports had published two different deadlines, some said it is 30 days and some said it 45 days. While asked to MP Kishanganj (the leader of the Kishanganj Education Movement), he had said the given timeline to Bihar Government is 30 days. Maulana Qasmi is highly optimistic about the given timeframe as the DM Kishanganj and his officials are giving proper attention to the land transfer issue.
Now coming back to the main point, if the Bihar Government fails to meet its promise, what should be the course of action on November 13, 2011? While calling off the dharna on October 12, 2011 Maulana Asrarul Haque declared in case Bihar Government doesn’t meet its promise, then he and his team will again sit on indefinite fast ‘Bhook Hartal’ in front of District Collectorate from November 13. We should hope for the best and expect a proper solution of the land transfer issue before the given time. If this doesn’t happens, the declared 13th November dharna will be the step ahead for the cause of AMU, but assembling such a huge crowd of 2 to 3 lakh is not at an easy job. Fact is that, the ‘Kishanganj Education Movement’ hasn’t planned anything special to face the critical situation till date.

Being a journalist, an old boy of AMU and a native of Kishanganj, Bihar, I have keenly followed the matter for past two years and always carry the dream to see the Special Centre of AMU in Kishanganj. Working under a committee called as AMU Centre Co-ordination Committee for the establishment of AMU Centre Kishanganj, I along with my team had met with AMU VC several times and top leaders of Bihar including Lalu Prasad Yadav, Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan to find out the solution of land transfer issue. However, Bihar Government apart from giving illogical statements against AMU VC and Centre did nothing to establish the centre in Kishanganj. When our committee and the local lost hope for the centre in Kishanganj, all decided to organize a massive protest against Bihar Government in Kishanganj.

My friendly suggestion to the leader and representatives of the ‘Kishanganj Education Movement’ – it should once again send a reminder to DM and Bihar Government to resolve the issue well before the given time ‘November 12, 2011’ to avoid any type of chaos among the people of Kishanganj, Seemanchal, other parts of Bihar and nearby Uttar Dinajpur district of West Bengal.

Mahendra Ved

WHEN two nations that, at 2.5 billion, account for over a third of the global population, debate on how to arrest a baby boom, the world must take note.
It is important because China and India also happen to be the world’s fastest growing economies, the highest energy consumers and, if the Western world’s propaganda is to be believed, the environment’s biggest polluters.

With some similar fault lines bedevilling their population planning strategies, their task of correcting them acquires a sense of urgency.

The two recently met at a population conference in Tianjin to mark “Seven Billion Population Day”.

Both have registered a huge rise in male-over-female births, or what demographers call the sex birth ratio, that is distorting socio-economic development, with bad portents for the future.

In both countries, this ratio is caused by a marked preference for boys as farm or factory hands and as bearers of the family line in largely patriarchal societies.
In India, it has been continually declining since 1961. But deeply disturbing statistics show a fall from 927 in 2001 to 914 so far this year — the worst since Independence.

In China, this phenomenon has been compounded by stricter enforcement of the one-child policy through the 1980s.

The implementation of China’s family planning policies “is fast becoming a major national scandal with child abduction, child trade and ‘social compensation’

payments to corrupt local officials for violation of the one-child policy”, say two scholars writing on East Asia Forum.

They are Zhongwei Zhao, a professor at the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute, Australian National University, and Chen Wei, with a PhD from ANU, of the Centre for Population and Development Studies, People’s University of China.

They say that the growing gender imbalance is “an unfortunate and unintended consequence” of engineering the contraction of China’s population.

“It will have a big impact on China’s future demographic and social development. The imbalance of males and females in the marriage market will be intense with many unwelcome social and psychological consequences. The pressure to reverse or ease family planning policies grows year by year.”

China’s population is expected to grow from just over 1.3 billion to 1.46 billion in 2030, after which it is expected to decline slowly, to around 1.42 billion in 2050.

Its working population, currently around 840 million, will rise in the next decade to around 910 million but will then decline very rapidly to around 790 million by 2050.

The most dramatic change is an explosion of the over-65 population and a decline in the share of the young. China’s median age will climb over this period from around 24 to around 45.

The recently conducted Census of India places the population at 1.21 billion and projects it at 1.4 billion by 2026. With only 2.4 per cent of the world’s landmass to support 17 per cent of its population, India’s need for population stabilisation cannot be overemphasised.

India is likely to miss its target of reaching population stabilisation by 2045. Now, the government is looking at 2060 as a plausible target.

India had set itself the goal of attaining replacement levels of fertility — 2.1 by last year. However, by the end of last year, only 14 states achieved the target.

Six states have fertility rates as high as three to four. This has made the government estimate that instead of reaching population stabilisation in 2045 (1.45 billion), it will reach the target (1.65 billion) around 2060.

“The steady decline in total fertility rate is encouraging, with 14 states out of 25 already achieving the replacement fertility level of 2.1. We are focusing on the high fertility areas for population stabilisation,” Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said at Tianjin.

The divergence in the Indian and Chinese approaches is clear. After the Chinese experience with the one-child norm and other laws, India is not even contemplating laws to curb the baby boom. No coercion, only incentives.

Azad said: “We can achieve our target of population stabilisation by improving contraceptive use and not by any legislation.”

That makes the task more difficult, but not impossible. Some of the new finds are encouraging, such as the steady decline in the total fertility rate, which is currently at 2.6 — a 42 per cent decline from the mid-1960s.

Northeastern India, boxed in by Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and China, has not allowed its isolation to come in the way of education.

With a bit of help from far-off New Delhi, but more with that of Christian missionaries and self-help, it has evolved its own knowledge dynamics. Among the success stories on the literacy front are two states in the region, Mizoram and Tripura. Held back by militancy earlier, they have surged ahead.

India is more literate than before. The literacy rate has climbed from 64.83 per cent in 2001 to 74.04 per cent this year. While literacy among males rose from 75.26 per cent to 82.14 per cent, an increase of 6.9 points, it rose among females from 53.67 per cent to 65.46 per cent — a much better increase of 11.8 points that is sorely needed.

Of the additional literates, women (110,069,000) outnumber men (107,631,940). The gap of 21.59 percentage points between men and women in 2001 now stands reduced to 16.68 points.

This confirms frequent reports, earlier viewed sceptically, of education spreading among women, particularly in the urban areas. More girls are completing school and even going to college than before. The marriage age is thus pushed up.

Notionally, even a slight push in the marriage age should delay motherhood, hopefully to a more mature age and, hopefully again, result in fewer and healthier children.

The other day, I heard of a mother of a young married son returning without the gauna — the north Indian custom of bringing home the child bride once she reaches puberty. The elders of the bride’s village stopped the boy’s family from taking the girl away, just when they were about to board a train. The girl, they pleaded, was keen to complete her schooling.

Age-old traditions take their own time to go. It is a long process, and there are no short cuts, save to create greater awareness through education and communication. This, at least, is true of India.

Curtusy: New Straits Times, Malaysian Edition.

Ram Puniyani

Life is full of strange paradoxes. Narendra Modi undertook fast for three days for Sadbhavna (Harmony), to mark complete peace, unity and harmony (Sept 2011). This came in the backdrop of the Supreme Court verdict which has asked the trial court to examine all the evidence and amicus curie’s report so that his culpability or otherwise in Gulbarg society case is decided. The Supreme Court order has directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to file its final report into the allegations of Narendra Modi being the architect-in-chief of the 2002 Gujarat massacre. This was interpreted by BJP as a clean chit to Modi. Modi in turn took sigh of relief and pronounced, ‘God is great’. Shrewd as Modi is, he has tried to project that this has exonerated him from his sins of Gujarat carnage 2002.

On one hand this fast is seen as an attempt to project him on the national scene, as after the political absence of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the eclipse on the fortunes of Lal Krishna Advani, there is tussle for the top slot in BJP. So far Modi has been projecting an image of man for development, but we know that the minorities and many allies of NDA are keeping a safe distance from Modi. This is a hindrance for his Prime Ministerial ambitions. BJP on other hand is celebrating the Supreme Court verdict just to create an impression of victory, which it is not. Now the process of justice is wide open and the path is open for the legal battle in times to come. It also seems that many goals have merged together leading to this fast by Modi.

One aim of course has been that Modi can never be acceptable for the Prime Ministerial candidate by NDA, unless he comes clean of his role in Gujarat 2002 by seeking an apology. This has a problem as seeking apology will also be a confession of guilt, which will alienate his hard core constituency who were made to believe that they are insecure because of the tiny Muslim minority. Cleverly Modi even refused to take the moral responsibility of 2002 by mocking the interviewer by retaliating as to what is this moral responsibility! The second goal seems to be a longing for image change over without really apologising for the 2002. The idea for such a fast must have come from the Anna’s fast, which was successfully elevated into a spectacle for the hidden goals of RSS and the corporate, the backbones of Anna movement. Seeing the success of Anna experiment, Modi has been quick to grab the idea of creating similar spectacle by using the public money. Thirdly, it seems that the ground is slipping from under Modi’s feet, so in order to retrieve the ground he undertook this exercise with the hope that it may help him retain Gujarat and then claim National leadership.

As such the truth is that at National level most of the allies of NDA know that the allegations against Modi have gone down too deep in the psyche of people. The acts of commission and omission of this person who was called as the ‘classic fascist person’ by the prominent social scientist, Ashish Nandy, are too glaring to be put under the carpet. Modi is trying to deflect all the criticism against him by saying that it is an insult to the six crore Gujaratis. This ploy may not work as a large number of citizens from Gujarat know that Modi may be the elected Chief Minister of Gujarat, but he is not the one who represents the essence of ‘Gujarat of Gandhi’ or Gujarat of dalits, Adivasis and Minorities, who also live in Gujarat in large numbers. Modi has done his best to create an image of ‘man of development’, thanks to the policies which have supported the large corporate houses, who have got state loans at minimal rate of interest, while the farmers continued to commit suicide burdened by loans etc. It is remarkable that while ‘shining Gujarat’ is projected, the ‘whining Gujarat’ is cleverly hidden from public vision.

The claims of Harmony in Gujarat are far from true. Those working at ground level know that post Gujarat carnage the divides between religious communities have widened. The place like Juhapura, Ahmadabad is a good example of that. In Juhapura Muslims from all over the state are trying to settle, in search of safety, physical and emotional, in the hostile environment created by post carnage situation. The average banking and other social facilities are not reaching to such places. Not only Muslims, even the Christians minorities are feeling insecure despite the lapse of close to a decade after the carnage. The Godhra train burning verdict clarified the attitude of state authorities, where the chief accused of the train burning Haji Umarji was tried for years without any evidence whatsoever and then was exonerated by the Court. The minorities are feeling discriminated against and marginalized. On the top of that the lack of justice for the victims is a major issue. Despite one after other police officer coming out with sworn affidavits the high handed attitude of state leadership continues.

The beginning of Sadbhavna has to be by seeking sincere apologies by Naremndra Modi. You cannot have peace and amity on the foundations of ‘hidden hate’ and ‘overt injustice’ prevailing in Gujarat. The polarization of religious communities has become more or less structural and the victims of carnage are finding no respite in their daily lives. Even the Human rights activists who have been taking up the cases on behalf of victims are being targeted and there are no brakes on the authoritarian nature of Narendra Modi. The gimmick of fasting for peace is a hollow move as the beginning of harmony has to be with the remorse for injustices which have been heaped on the minorities. Times and over again the TV anchors and social activists have tried to urge upon Modi to begin the process of harmony by apologizing for the carnage of 2002, but all these well meaning appeals have fallen on the deaf years.

The process of Harmony fast revealed many things about the nature of politics being pursued by Modi. While he was more than keen to be wearing the head gears offered by other priests, he refused to put on the Muslim cap. While he could mobilise some victims on the stage, many a victims of injustices were not permitted to come anywhere close to him. We also witnessed that protesters were not allowed to vent their grievances while the fast for amity was in progress. All this is a clear reflection of the shape of things to come. The attempt to win over minorities of the state and the country will not cut any ice. The factors related to mis-governance may come to the fore and be a counter to the five star fast undertaken by Modi.

This present move of fasting has deeper political agenda and has nothing to do with the longing for peace. One wishes the genuine aspirations for harmony are begun through a process of remorse, reparation and proper justice to the victims who have been languishing in ghettoes, bereft of proper rights as citizens. We do need to distinguish between genuine efforts for harmony from these hollow attempts meant to consolidate the politics of Hate…

Fellow Members of Civil Society,

Come, let us put aside our virtuous outrage for a moment, and step into the shoes of one of those ordinary men and women running our public transport, water supply and other civic services. For instance, let us see life through the eyes of Mrs Smita Pratap Pednekar.

Mrs Pednekar sells tickets at a railway counter; you and your family members may have bought a ticket from her. She lives in the Railway Employees’ Colony at Dahisar, a distant suburb of Mumbai. She and her husband Pratap work for Indian Railways.

Every day after work, Mrs Pednekar commutes by train, buys vegetables and fish and gets home to her children and elderly mother-in-law. Then she cooks dinner before her husband returns home.

Mrs Pednekar does not get envelopes of cash under the table. Her conscience is clear, but she is afraid. What she fears most is office politics. She is worried about the prospect of being posted at a distant office. Both she and her husband have insecurities about loss of seniority, loss of increments etc, as some of their corrupt colleagues enjoy undue influence.

Mrs Pednekar avoids taking sides in any controversy. She pretends not to know anything. But in January, her husband was required to give evidence against a colleague at a departmental enquiry. Since then, some people at her office have been giving her dirty looks and stopped sharing their lunch with her. She is constantly afraid that they are looking for opportunities to victimize her.

With the whole of India shouting patriotic slogans like ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ in one voice, Mrs Smita Pednekar has lost her voice.

Nowadays, silence dominates the Pednekar household. There is none of the usual light conversation when the family sits down on the floor with stainless-steel thalis, and Mrs Pednekar serves fish curry and rice. She tells the children to eat in silence. She scolds her mother-in-law for switching on TV news channels, and makes her switch off the television.

Mrs Pednekar used to discuss current topics and politics within the family, but now she keeps her thoughts to herself. She changes the topic when the children ask why Anna Hazare fasted at Ramlila Maidan, and what is the Jan Lokpal Bill all about. One day, they came home from school wearing Gandhi topis painted with the words, ‘I am Anna Hazare’. She has had a sinking feeling in her stomach since that day.

On Raksha Bandhan, Mrs Pednekar visited her brother’s house on the 20th floor of Oberoi Woods, Goregaon. Her brother and sister-in-law are rich; they have private sector jobs. While they were having lunch together, a news channels was loudly discussing Anna Hazare’s insistence on including the junior staff of government under the Jan Lokpal Bill. This triggered a conversation about how the whole nation was up in arms against junior staff and their corruption. Her husband Pratap took a stand against the Jan Lokpal Bill, and loudly argued with her brother and sister-in-law, and everybody else who was working in the private sector. Alarmed by the rising voices, Smita gently pinched her husband, called him inside and pleaded with him. “What will people think? They will say that you are supporting corruption! We are government employees; remember that and keep quiet!” she whispered. The couple made some excuses and hurriedly left as the others loudly continued the discussion in their absence.

Mrs Pednekar is in awe of Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal, and other great people fasting in all over the country and debating corruption on television. Surely they know all about corruption, otherwise why would they be talking so loudly, she reasons. She thinks that a “strong Lokpal Bill” is generally a good thing if it makes the country cleaner and less corrupt. But the point of the Bill should not be to threaten people like her with enquiries, penalties and imprisonment, she feels.

She feels greatly confused by Annaji’s demand for such harsh provisions against her; the fact that a good man like him says that he will go on indefinite fast for this demand makes her very uncomfortable. Is Annaji with me or against me, she wonders. “Annaji is a good and simple man. So why is he fasting for punishing good and simple people like me and my husband?” she wonders.

Mrs Pednekar’s experiences have given her reason to fear legal processes. She believes that proceedings generally go against those who are less able to defend themselves, rather than those who are truly guilty. So she fears that Jan Lokpal Bill will punish people like herself, who are voiceless. She is afraid that more resourceful colleagues will connive together to use such a law to target her and her husband.

But she is in no position to say all this, because she and her husband are government servants, and therefore excluded from “civil society”. Everybody is listening only to civil society nowadays; they think government servants are all corrupt, and therefore their views don’t count.

Respected Annaji & Arvind, the deafening roar of “civil society” has isolated and silenced Mrs Smita Pednekar’s voice. Will you please give her back her voice? Will you please hold consultations at Railway Employees Colony and other colonies where government employees live? Will you go to various employees associations?

Will you go there and explain to them why there is a need for a Jan Lokpal Bill that punishes Group B, C And D employees? And will you please hear and understand what such employees have to say in this matter?

( Krishnaraj Rao is a Mumbai based RTI Activist. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect BH’s editorial policy. Rao can be contacted at sahasipadyatri@gmail.com)

Today, the face of terror was removed from the minds of Americans by the killing of Osama bin Laden by US Navy Seals. As announced in a speech by President Obama, justice has been done not because Americans valued wealth or power but the values that make them. The values of  liberty and justice for all. The sense of retribution and the gulps of emotion at ground zero following the remembrance of terror strike of 9/11 had been avenged. The service and lives of those who died fighting the war on terror was not forgotten, and all peace loving people should welcome such a news.

The US war was against Al-Qa’ida and not Islam. Muslims had also become Osama’s victims. The celebrations were for a victory of justice and peace. The message was loud and clear, the days of terrorism were coming to an end with most people took a deep breath of relieve rather than peace. Nonetheless what remains is universal recognition of these values by President Obama for everyone affected.

One of the first questions that is set to become controversial among Muslims is the hurried manner in disposal of Osama’s body. Officials of the US administration claim some resistance was put up by the leader who was shot in the head, he apparently did not die and was shot again. From the pictures released, it is difficult to understand how the mattress is blood spot free yet the floor under the bed and carpet are heavily stained. The body was identified by the Navy Seals, members of his family living in the compound and a DNA test was apparently conducted through a sample collected from the brain of his dead sister. It is difficult to see how the body could be tested and flown 400 miles to sea in a couple of hours.

By afternoon, Pakistan TV channels were showing the bloody face of a body claiming it to be Bin Laden’s. These were later refuted to be constructed, and US officials said that the images were too bloody to be displayed. By one in the afternoon, the officials said: “We are ensuring that it is handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition. This is something that we take very seriously and therefore, this is being handled in an appropriate manner.” What these rituals were is unknown. Unconvincing, the body was washed according to Islamic rituals aboard an aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, taken in a boat and dropped in the north Arabian sea. What the administration meant by Islamic rituals was a burial in 24 hours. It is indeed true that a body is best buried early but in mother earth and not sea many need more evidence.

Several Islamic scholars have come forward with their opinion on the matter. Bin Laden’s burial at sea “runs contrary to the principles of Islamic laws, religious values and humanitarian customs,” said Sheik Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand Imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar mosque, highest seat of Islamic learning, said.

Omar Bakri Mohammed, a radical cleric in Lebanon, said: “The Americans want to humiliate Muslims through this burial, and I don’t think this is in the interest of the US administration.” Mohammed al-Qubaisi, Dubai’s grand mufti, said: “They can say they buried him at sea, but they cannot say they did it according to Islam.” He further said: “If the family does not want him, it was not an issue. The burial in Islam is really very simple. You dig up a grave anywhere, even on a remote island, say prayers and that’s it. Sea burials are permissible for Muslims in extraordinary circumstances, and this situation was not one of them.”

“What was done by the Americans is forbidden by Islam and might provoke some Muslims,” said another Islamic scholar from Iraq, Abdul-Sattar al-Janabi, who preaches at Baghdad’s famous Abu Hanifa mosque. “It is not acceptable, and it is almost a crime to throw the body of a Muslim into the sea. The body of Bin Laden should have been handed over to his family to look for a country or land to bury him,’ he said.

The official defense was to prevent a shrine built to honor him like the one built for Saddam Hussain for his followers. Another claim is the refusal of Saudi authorities to take his body in spite of his Saudi nationality. Osama was killed many times before most notably in December 2001 too, but he has remained in the minds of the people for whatever be the reason. Was it too much to bury him in an unknown grave for a clean and clear end? Does the body of a ‘terrorist’ not require dignity and identification? Are such ‘terrorists’ not even worth a trial in the International Court of Justice like Slobodon Milosovich of Bosnian ethnic cleansing fame? Perhaps, the US record has not been clean with the Guntanomo Bay record.

Does anyone at this stage bother about a country’s sovereignty been violated, Pakistan’s? Afghanistan was invaded by the US forces without a formal declaration till date. Such new tactical wars violate the country’s sovereignty, and all international norms need a check on US violations. Pakistan was a sitting duck in the game played on its soil. On the contrary, we saw how thousands of civilians were killed by the government forces without an immediate humanitarian intervention in Libya.The values of liberty , justice and equality belong to all and not the exclusive domain of a single country.

(Amnah can be contacted at amnah@beyondheadlines.in)

Now that social crusader Anna Hazare’s, what many called “unreasonable” fast unto death has ended on the morning of its fifth day. Let’s sit and ponder. Corruption is the menace that has dampened the growth of India more than anything else. Only communalism would perhaps come anyway close to it. Many would argue that even communalism or Maoism became an elephant foot because of it. Rajeev Gandhi had famously said that less than 15 paisa of every rupee actually reaches to those it is meant for. The figure might have changed (in positive or negatives), but the reality is the same.

However, corruption is nothing new. Even before independence, it had started taking roots. As early as 1937, Mahtama Gandhi, the father of the nation, is believed to have said, “We seem to have weakened from within. I would go to the length of giving the whole Congress a decent burial rather than put up with corruption that is rampant.”

Although the problem is not with the congress party, it is in the chromosome of the nation. And at the cost of being labeled a “Congressi,” to “repent not participating because I had differences,” I hereby proudly say that I did not go to Jantar Mantar to stand with the 72-year-old crusader although he is one among the few people who I hold in high esteem in present day India.

For former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, it was often said that “he is a right man in a wrong party.” I feel that is what has happened with Anna. Or perhaps like Vajpayee, Anna too is from the same flock.

My heart says, perhaps, he is not. In that case is he playing naïve in the hands of few? Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar had remarked in 1949, “The first thing… we must do is to hold fast to constitutional methods… we must abandon… civil disobedience, non-cooperation and satyagraha… these methods are nothing but the grammar of anarchy and the sooner they are abandoned the better for us.”

The campaign was launched by the umbrella organization called “India Against Corruption.”  Arvind Kejriwal on record said that they resorted to the “Gandhian” way of dharna as they had no intention of contesting elections and “democratic” measure like petitioning, etc. have failed.

No intention! Baba Ramdev, who is one of the faces of the group, has as early as on February 28 announced his intention. In fact, the “intention” reverberated at the time of breaking of hunger strike.

Although the problem is not just being “political” or “apolitical,” the group describes itself as “an expression of collective anger of the people of India against corruption.” However, a well-known journalist wrote on a newsportal “India Against Corruption (IAC), a movement of concerned citizens of India, promises a new beginning in an otherwise hopeless struggle against systemic corruption in India.”

“Concerned citizens,” who hold themselves as the holy cows, comprising of the “civil society” think that they represent the country, and not the “chor netas” (corrupt leaders) who win elections. Yes, most of the politicians are corrupt, and politics need to be weeded out. But the chromosome of corruption won’t cease just by creating another “super cop or super judicial” institution. In fact, Kejriwal said on record that he is open to discussion on the draft bill. So all this hullaballoo for four days was only for discussions?

Like a child, Anna and others appeared angry on not getting what they wanted. Hence not eating, they were happy at the moment they got. So the “committee” of civil societies for discussion would comprise of both Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal, besides others.

A child does not like to see mother showering same affection on some other child. And so, this “civil society” group did not want anyone else in the group. They say that they are ready for discussions, but discussion on their draft, not what Aruna Roy or the National Advisory Council suggested, or not to even listen to Harsh Mandar or Sandeep Pandey or others who did not support them.

And lastly, for the swelling number of urban middle class people who had turned up for the “revolution” on India’s “Tahrir Square” and expressed their anger against corruption, this whole episode was nothing more than that of a Carnival. The main issue of contention was not “corruption” but “my anti graft Jan Lok Pal Bill against your Lokpal Bill.” And I can here vouch that most of them did not know the difference between the two or worse what they meant.

It was the same crowed that had come to cheer India’s victory, and the same crowd’s sentiments was echoed by a leading newspaper, which on Saturday declared, “India wins again.” But is it India’s victory? So tomorrow jats sit for reservations and threaten to go on fast. Will the government heed to similar demands?

And last, my fear is that what may happen if precedence is followed in Kashmir? In Manipur, Irom Sharmila is on a very legitimate demand of withdrawing Special Arm’s Power Act. Alas! it finds little support from the media.