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			<title>In search of a Hazare</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/237772/in-search-of-a-hazare</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/237772/in-search-of-a-hazare#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 23 Aug 11 17:09:43 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[shahzad chaudhry]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[India is likely to gain from this internal convulsion while a diffused effort in Pakistan is likely to go to waste.]]>
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				<![CDATA[I have often urged us, as a nation, to look beyond the distortions in our ideological foundations and carve a newer identity, more in line with the needs of the 21st century. Also, that it is okay for a nation to be seen evolving with time, maturing both its moorings as well as its promise. Ideological anchoring need not be based on religion alone. Each era must of essence have newer ideals and aspirations for a nation.

The world has moved on from deep ideological associations in the political or the economic sense and has gradually evolved towards a more pragmatic, global cosmopolitan culture. There is now a wider definition of an ‘international’ character in all things — political, economic, social, cuisine and even music. Every nation dons both an international and a national garb; that is how it remains entwined into a global culture. This is what makes each relevant to others. Combined ownership and shared stakes trigger complementary associations. Syria, Libya, Iran and North Korea have always existed beyond the global pale or on the fringes. As troubles ferment and become entrenched there, the world at large sits by seeing these entities unravel.

Pakistan must not see itself being categorised in such a league. Even sham associations with anachronistic ideological moorings are suspect in current times, and while America may seem to be an unyielding hegemon in this association, it will do us well to remember that nations such as China, India and Indonesia are happily becoming a part of the future world with newer anchoring of their own. Sovereignty has a newer meaning, which includes ensuring that no action of a nation endangers and pollutes this international society of nations. Along with association comes responsibility.

India is experiencing the pangs of such redefinition and re-examination of its former ways. To become an eligible player for the super-league, it must change itself. Anna Hazare leads such an internal effort to mend India’s ways. Establishments by design are status-quo and resistant to change. A political system, too, is dogmatic when it is established and acquires inertial attributes unyielding to any minor prods. This is where the Anna Hazares of the world and their mass movements become handy. In India, the political system is being challenged. Not only that, corruption as a trend — enriching the rich and impoverishing further the poor — needs to be stemmed with punitive laws, pushing the politicians to rise above the self to politics of service and duty, rather than use democracy only for electoral ends and a means to power and pelf.

Back to our own world: there has been an unintended picking from the uneasy détente that emerged from the diplomatic stand-off between India and Pakistan following the Mumbai incident. Both incapable of another physical stand-off, let alone a war or a skirmish, resorted to simmer, sulk and silence in that order. Silence they say is the trigger for dreams. With both, the other being out of focus of divine providence and vanquished physical capacity, space lent itself to introspection. What we gain are two parallel efforts in both countries; each society acting its role as per its inherent capacities. In India, we have a 74-year-old, feeble man, à la Gandhian mould,  leading a popular anti-corruption movement against a corrupt political and business culture and within that challenging an unyielding political system. While in Pakistan, we only cry out the advent of a transformational moment but remain mired in introspective idealism. Our targets vary; to some it is a moment of redemption from an inexorably deviant military, to others it is the opportunity of lifetime to shun modernity and re-embrace religious idealism. The political system in Pakistan, steeped in patronage and exploitation,  as much a reflection of the political tradition across the border. However, on the other hand it continues to remain eclipsed thanks to this societal divide and its diverse endeavour. India is likely to gain from this internal convulsion while a diffused effort in Pakistan is likely to go to waste, losing the historicity of an opportune moment without a mend of its structural decay. The question is, where lie dormant our Hazares?

For starters, Karachi beckons. Anyone?

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Indian PM offers concessions to Anna Hazare</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/237857/indian-pm-offers-concessions-to-fasting-activist</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/237857/indian-pm-offers-concessions-to-fasting-activist#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 23 Aug 11 15:20:18 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Singh calls an all-party meeting on the crisis for Wednesday, struggles in building consensus with opposition parties]]>
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				<![CDATA[Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offered the first concessions on Tuesday in his high-stakes standoff with activist Anna Hazare, urging him to end an anti-graft fast that has triggered huge protests.

In a letter to the 74-year-old campaigner whose hunger strike has boxed Singh's government into a tight political corner, the prime minister proposed a series of compromises in their dispute over a new anti-corruption law.

Hazare insists the government bill is toothless, and says he will continue his fast - now in its eighth day - unless parliament adopts and passes his own, more aggressive, version by August 30.

In his letter, Singh stressed that parliament's "supremacy" as the sole elected body with the mandate to determine legislation had to be respected.

Nevertheless, "in view of my deep and abiding concern for your health," Singh said he was willing to request that the speaker of parliament refer Hazare's version of the bill to the committee that is reviewing the government's draft.

He also said the committee would be asked to fast-track its deliberations.

"I do hope that you will consider my suggestions and end your fast to regain full health and vitality," Singh said.

The concessions marked a significant shift by the prime minister, who last week had condemned Hazare's demands as "totally misconceived" and a threat to India's parliamentary democracy.

Singh's government, which has been hit by a succession of multi-billion-dollar corruption scandals, was blindsided by the outpouring of national support for Hazare's campaign.

In the biggest protests for three decades, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets of cities across the country, calling for an end to the culture of bribery and backhanders that blights their daily lives.

And tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters have gathered every day at the open-air venue in central Delhi where Hazare is staging his public fast.

Singh's written appeal came as his government instigated its first direct talks with Hazare's aides in a bid to find a way out of the impasse.

Law Minister Salman Khurshid met briefly with Arvind Kejriwal, a senior member of Hazare's campaign, for what both described as preliminary talks aimed at sounding out the other's positions.

"There has been no progress on the contentious issues. We just had general discussions," Kejriwal told reporters.

There was no immediate response to Singh's letter from Hazare, whose aides said they were increasingly concerned about the aged activist's health.

"Every hour is crucial now," said close aide Kiran Bedi. "We are worried that his health might suffer."

However, Hazare was in a feisty and defiant mood when he spoke to cheering supporters earlier in the day.

In his letter, Singh struck a pointedly conciliatory tone, saying his government shared Hazare's desire for the strongest possible anti-corruption laws.

"At worst, our paths and methodologies may differ, though I do believe that even those differences have been exaggerated," he said.

"I have no hesitation in saying that we need your views and actions in the service of the nation, from a robust physical condition and not in the context of frail or failing health," he added.

Singh has called an all-party meeting on the crisis for Wednesday but faces an uphill struggle in building a consensus with opposition parties who have accused him of misjudging and mishandling Hazare's populist campaign.]]>
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			<title>Hazare ready 'to die', Indian PM seeks solution</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/237649/hazare-ready-to-die-indian-pm-seeks-solution</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/237649/hazare-ready-to-die-indian-pm-seeks-solution#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 23 Aug 11 09:08:21 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Singh invited all party leaders to meet to seek to hammer out a consensus to deal.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Fasting activist Anna Hazare said Tuesday he was ready "to die" for India as the government called an all-party meeting to try to break its damaging standoff with the anti-corruption campaigner.

Hazare's hunger strike has captured the public imagination in India, triggering huge protests and boxing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's graft-tainted government into a tight political corner.

With the fast entering its eighth day and concerns over Hazare's health mounting, Singh invited all party leaders to meet Wednesday to seek to hammer out a consensus to deal with his demands for stronger anti-corruption laws.

"It would be my good fortune to die for the country," the 74-year-old Hazare told thousands of supporters at the open-air venue in central Delhi where he is staging his public fast.

"My demands will not change. You can cut off my head but not force me to bow down," he said.

Hazare's protest is focused on anti-graft legislation known as the "Lokpal" (Ombudsman) Bill. He insists the current draft is toothless, and is demanding the government adopt and pass his own, more aggressive, version by August 30.

Blindsided by the unprecedented groundswell of national support for Hazare, the government has struggled to find a compromise while insisting that parliament cannot be dictated to on matters of legislation.

Hazare seemed in good spirits Tuesday, but aides say he has lost 5.6 kilograms (12.3 pounds) and his health is a matter of concern.
He is attended by a team of doctors, who regularly check his blood pressure and monitor other vital signs.

Hazare has permission to stage his public fast until September 2, but has made it clear that he would continue refusing food until his version of the bill is passed by parliament.

On Monday, Singh said his government was "open to a reasoned debate" on the pending legislation but stressed that there was no single solution for eradicating corruption.
"I feel the complexity of the task is not adequately appreciated," he said in a speech in Kolkata.

"The creation of the Lokpal as an institution will help, but it will not solve the problem," he said, arguing that it had to be backed up by judicial reforms and a thorough revamp of government procedure.
Singh faces an uphill struggle in building a consensus with opposition parties who have pilloried the prime minister for misjudging and mishandling the challenge thrown down by Hazare's populist campaign.

Rajiv Pratap Rudy, spokesman for the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, said that Hazare's stand had gained "rousing support".
"The government should negotiate with him. We believe that his demands and his actions are legitimate," he told AFP.

Both sides have said they are open to talks, but neither seems willing to make a formal move, relying instead on a number of go-betweens to relay their respective positions.

The focus of Hazare's campaign poses particular problems for Singh's government, which has been rocked by a succession of multi-billion dollar corruption scandals implicating top officials.]]>
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			<title>Anna Hazare’s narrow focus</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/236986/anna-hazare%e2%80%99s-narrow-focus</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/236986/anna-hazare%e2%80%99s-narrow-focus#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 22 Aug 11 15:57:17 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[urvashi.butalia]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=236986</guid>
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				<![CDATA[In the cacophony of noisy support for Anna Hazare’s campaign, a Shehla Masood’s killing has gone virtually...]]>
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				<![CDATA[Even as Anna Hazare was gearing up for ‘Round 2’ of his campaign against corruption, a young lawyer, Shehla Masood, stepped out of her house in Bhopal to go to a meeting to organise a support protest. Within minutes, she was shot dead and shortly afterwards, her lifeless body was found in her car.

In the cacophony of noisy support for Anna Hazare’s campaign, Shehla’s killing has gone virtually unnoticed. There are newspaper reports, there’s outrage, but the headlines are taken by Anna: his arrest was dramatic, his release even more so, and now, he sits at Ramlila grounds, surrounded by his supporters and hundreds of thousands of people who want to make their voices heard against corruption.

While no one can argue that corruption is a canker that is eating at the innards of our society, and it needs to be urgently addressed, there are many other issues that this noisy campaign is obfuscating.

First, that in a democracy the right to dissent, to protest, to demand change, is a right. Every citizen has that right, just as Anna does, and the government was wrong to deny him that. But even governments make mistakes, and the UPA, the party in power, is now seeing the consequences of its foolishness.

But also that Anna Hazare, no matter how just his campaign in essence, is not blameless either. The history of legislation in democratic countries anywhere in the world shows that NO legislation goes through by blackmail and nothing goes through without negotiation, alteration and addition. Indeed, nothing goes through — and nothing should go through – without debate. Certainly not something as important as a Lokpal Bill, a legislation that will put in place an authority over virtually the highest in the land, to address the issue of corruption.

The question is legitimately being raised in India that there is a Constitution, and it is supreme. Can anything override it? There is a judiciary and a legislature. Should we be placing yet another authority over and above them? No one doubts that we need something like a Lokpal, but what its powers will or can be needs debate. Just as the question of whether legislation alone can address widespread corruption needs to be answered.

But Anna Hazare, for all his charisma, does not seem to be prepared to listen. There have been campaigns which support the move for a Lokpal but which ask for extended debate on its pros and cons, and which ask people to draw upon the rich legacy of the right to information campaign, and how it resulted in the Right to Information Act, which suggest that this is the democratic way to go about thinking about such important legislative changes. But Anna and his team and their supporters are not listening. They are taken up in the euphoria of protest, of numbers, of television screens, of smses and cellphones.

One of the criticisms of Anna Hazare’s campaign has been its almost exclusive focus on corruption in political circles. In a note that details the concern of the National Campaign For People’s Right to Information — which was in many ways the beginning of the process of demanding an end to corruption — activists point out that while it is important to address corruption in governance and politics that cannot be the entire scope of such legislation, for corruption is much more widespread and, perhaps, therefore the answer is to think of not one overarching Lokpal Bill, but different pieces of legislation designed to address different problems.

The truth is that none of the parties involved has acquitted themselves well in the drama that is unfolding at this very moment in Delhi. The government’s initial reaction to Anna’s campaign in the first round was to set up a joint committee to go into drafting a mutually acceptable bill. As often happens, somewhere along the way the committee faced roadblocks — from all accounts not very major ones as there seems to have been a reasonable degree of agreement. So far, so good. But then, both sides dug their heels in.

The government stopped dialogue with Anna and he threatened to go on a fast unto death. His arrest followed, and then his release, and his being allowed to sit in protest at Ramlila grounds. The media hawks were happy, news channels had enough material to continue broadcasting for hours. So emboldened were the protestors that they refused to follow the standard ‘rules’ of protest — stopping the use of microphones at night for example. And no one knows any longer what the outcome will be.

Will the government give in to pressure? Already under attack on many fronts — the Commonwealth Games, the telecommunications scandal — the government now faces an opposition united across party lines in its support of Anna Hazare. No matter how much dissenters might say that Anna’s tactics are not Gandhian, that refusal to negotiate was never part of Gandhi’s repertoire, that Anna is authoritarian and does not allow dissent or questioning, the truth is that his campaign has caught the hearts and minds of a huge middle-class population that is out there on the streets demonstrating, singing, demanding.

Meanwhile, in Bhopal, Shehla Masood’s tragic death tells us that the weapons of corruption are far too strong for a piece of legislation to deal with. In Manipur, Irom Sharmila’s ten-year long protest against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act reminds us that violations of human rights are, in a democracy, as important as issues like corruption. A cursory look at the daily lives of ordinary Indians tells us that health, poverty, education are issues as crucial as corruption, and that all such issues are, in the end, linked and any campaign that is geared to improving the lives of the poor in India needs to address itself to these issues, centrally and fundamentally.

But the tragedy of this is that is anyone even listening?

 

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23rd, 2011.]]>
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			<title>The economy, stupid</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/236973/the-economy-stupid</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/236973/the-economy-stupid#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 22 Aug 11 15:33:51 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[feisal.h.naqvi]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Social research indicates that 42% of Pakistanis think corruption is the biggest threat to the nation.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Wailing about corruption has become part of our usual soundscape. And like the din of our daily lives, or the persistent stink of a nearby sewer, we have learnt to block it out. For many of us, corruption is just one of the many unfortunate facts that we need to live with. Or is it?

A large number of Indians don’t think so. Anna Hazare, the 74-year-old Indian social reformer hoping to emulate Gandhi, has touched off a firestorm in India with his crusade against corruption. After being arrested and tossed in jail, Hazare has now emerged to a hero’s welcome and a government which is trying desperately to avoid being cast as the bad guy.

The obvious response at this stage is that Pakistan is not India. We do not have massive crowds out on the streets protesting against corruption. And we have no equivalent of Anna Hazare storming the ramparts of Islamabad.

The obvious response, however, is wrong. The crowds may not be out on the streets yet but according to innovative social research carried out by the data-mining wizards at pringit.com, corruption is — by far — the single most important consideration across the board for all Pakistanis, irrespective of geographic location.

The nationwide analysis by Pringit (described as a Pakistani social network for mobile phone users) found that 42 per cent of Pakistanis think that corruption is the biggest threat facing Pakistan (as opposed to 12 per cent for ‘dehshatgardi’ or terrorism). Even across different locations — the results were separately analysed for Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad, Peshawar, Fata, Islamabad, Multan and Balochistan — corruption was universally perceived as the biggest threat to Pakistan. In fact, with the exception of the results for Fata and Peshawar, terrorism was not even the second-most important threat: instead, that spot went to either unemployment or inflation (‘mehngai’). Overall, economic concerns (corruption, unemployment, inflation) accounted for 80 per cent of public concerns.

I have to admit that the results came as a surprise to me. After all, between the daily discovery of gunny-sacked bodies in Karachi and the steady drip of casualties from atrocities like the bombing of a mosque in Jamrud, I would have thought it self-evident that the single biggest problem in Pakistan is law and order. But clearly, the people think differently.

Given that the facts are unarguable, a separate issue emerges: does this make sense? Is corruption really as big a deal as the people of Pakistan think it is?

There is certainly a distinguished body of opinion which thinks that corruption is not that big a deal. Or as pithily stated by one commentator on Twitter, “corruption is a silly middle-class concern”.

The economic (or policy) argument in support of that contention is fairly simple. The basic theory behind capitalism is that private individuals get to decide what their capital does since they are best capable of figuring out what the market needs. The job of the government (in such a context) is therefore to provide the services that people need in order to have a stable economic playing field (i.e., things like electricity, transport infrastructure and basic physical security). The fact that people are willing to pay money for certain services (i.e. to give bribes) only shows that the government has misallocated resources or is not responding to private demand. As such, corruption is simply how private entrepreneurs get what they should have been getting in the first place.

While I am no economist, I think such blithe disregard for social concerns is not such a good idea. To begin with, the events of the last few years have only reminded us that capitalism is an imperfect system, one whose many benefits need to be moderated with a dose of common sense and sufficient government regulation to prevent a completely imbalanced society. It is this imbalance which is the public’s root concern today.

As explained by an Indian supporter of Hazare in a New York Times report, “It is the middle class who is worst affected by corruption. The upper class is not affected. The upper classes can get what they need by paying money”.

The term ‘corruption’ thus covers many sins. It refers to the paying of bribes. It refers to a society in which the upper classes can afford to pay ‘speed money’ but the rest of the people cannot. And it refers to public anger at a system so decrepit that none of the simple necessities of life are available without paying extra, often at prices which are not affordable.

Let me try to put all of this together. If the polling data is accurate, there is a tidal wave of public anger building up in Pakistan. From what I can gather, there is little or no recognition of this groundswell amongst the established political parties, all of whom seem to be assuming that life consists of mouthing the same old clichés and all of whom seem to be assuming that the public has no other options.

I am no fan of Imran Khan and I certainly don’t think that he is the answer to our problems. But it may well be that the very high levels of public dissatisfaction with corruption are fuelling his surprisingly high public support. If that is the case, he may not just be a flash in the pan but instead a serious player in the forthcoming elections.

In the 1992 elections, Bill Clinton’s famous War Room used to feature a banner saying, “It’s the economy, stupid”. The point of the banner was to remind the Clinton team that despite all of the froth on the airwaves, what counted most was the economy and people’s perception of it. It may be that the time has come to put up similar banners in the Presidency and in each of the chief minster houses. Otherwise, chances are that the next few years will be more ‘interesting’ than anybody would really prefer.

 

 

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23rd, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Under pressure, Indian anti-graft may tone down demands</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/236393/under-pressure-indian-anti-graft-may-tone-down-demands</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/236393/under-pressure-indian-anti-graft-may-tone-down-demands#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 21 Aug 11 09:09:06 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Hazare says hunger strike will continue until government passes tough anti-graft bill he champions.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Supporters of an anti-graft activist whose hunger strike campaign has galvanised millions of Indians appeared to reach out to the country's embattled government on Sunday after coming under pressure to tone down their demands.

At least 50,000 people gathered on Sunday to support Anna Hazare, a 74-year-old self-styled Gandhian activist who was on his sixth day of fasting at an open ground in the capital, one of the biggest protests yet and a sign of his continuing deep popularity on the streets.

Protesters chanted "Anna, you keep fighting, we are with you," and "Hail mother India".

Hazare says the hunger strike, which involves not eating but drinking water, will continue until the government passes a tough anti-graft bill he champions.

But his insistence the government introduce this bill on Tuesday and pass it by the end of this month sparked criticism that his group was dictating policy to an elected parliament, and a leading member of Hazare's team appeared to reach for a compromise.

"We are in favour of discussion," Arvind Kejriwal told supporters on Sunday. "We want to ask the prime minister whom should we come to talk to, and when and where."

His statement came after one of India's foremost civil rights organisations, the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI), said it would introduce its own anti-graft bill.

"I think Anna-ji is ill-advised ... anyone who says my view should be the only view is wrong," Aruna Roy, a member of the NCPRI and one of India's most famous social activists, was quoted by the local media as saying.

Hazare left jail on Friday to huge cheering crowds and widespread media coverage. He was briefly arrested on Tuesday, but then refused to leave jail until the government allowed him to continue his public fast for 15 days.

The activists' supporters say he will not fast to the death but a medical team is on hand to monitor his condition. Hazare has carried out scores of hunger strikes to pressure governments over social issues in the last few decades.

Hazare's campaign has struck a chord with millions of Indians, especially the expanding middle-class sick of endemic bribes, and has become a thorn in the side of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as his government battles corruption scandals.

The Times of India on Sunday said that more than one million people had joined the newspaper's online anti-graft campaign, and local media said there were more than 500 protests across India on Friday, the day Hazare stepped out of jail.

But criticism of Hazare, who has evoked memories of independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, appeared to increase. `

"Team Anna's rhetoric is stopping to make sense," was the headline of the Mail Today on Sunday in an editorial that criticised Hazare's rush to get his bill passed.

Hazare on Sunday remained defiant, telling supporters that "it's time for another revolution".

The criticism came as Singh, widely seen as out of touch, won some praise on Saturday for saying he was open to dialogue - the first time in a week that his fumbling government appeared to have taken an initiative over the crisis.

In another sign of moves for a compromise, a ruling party lawmaker has sent Hazare's bill to a parliamentary committee for consideration, meeting a demand of the protesters.

Several scandals, including a telecoms bribery scam that may have cost the government up to $39 billion, led to Hazare demanding anti-corruption measures. But the government bill creating an anti-graft ombudsman was criticised as too weak as it exempted the prime minister and the judiciary from probes.

For many, the pro-Hazare movement has highlighted the vibrant democracy of an urban generation that wants good governance rather than government through regional strongmen or caste ties – a transformation that may be played out in 2012 state polls that will pave the way for a 2014 general election.

A weak political opposition means that the government should survive the crisis, but it could further dim the prospect for economic reforms and hurt the Congress party in elections.

The main Hindu nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party is organising a nationwide protest against the government on Thursday, while a group of left parties is planning a national protest on Tuesday.]]>
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			<title>Anna Hazare leaves jail to start public fast</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/235017/anna-hazare-leaves-jail-to-start-public-fast</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/235017/anna-hazare-leaves-jail-to-start-public-fast#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 19 Aug 11 07:40:10 +0500</pubDate>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Thousands of frenzied, flag-waving supporters cheered Hazare as he walked from the gates of Delhi's Tihar jail.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Indian activist Anna Hazare left jail Friday to start a two-week public fast likely to fuel an eruption of angry protests over corruption that has left the government stumbling for a response.

(Read: Crusade against corruption)

Thousands of frenzied, flag-waving supporters cheered the diminutive 74-year-old as he walked from the gates of Delhi's Tihar jail, his de-facto campaign headquarters since he was taken into police custody three days ago.

Smiling and waving, he led the ecstatic crowds in chants of "Hail Mother India" and vowed to pursue his hunger strike protest "until India is corruption-free".

He then boarded an open-top truck to carry him through the streets to an open venue in central Delhi where he will stage his fast aimed at forcing the government to bow to his demands for stronger anti-corruption laws.

Once seen as just an annoying thorn in the side of the establishment, Hazare has transformed into a national figure whose popularity has destabilised a government elected in 2009 with an unassailable parliamentary majority.

His campaign has tapped into a deep reservoir of discontent, especially among India's burgeoning middle-class, with a culture that requires bribes to secure everything from business permits to birth certificates.

Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets of cities across India in recent days in the most significant display of popular dissent for more than three decades.

The government's response, especially the initial arrest of Hazare and thousands of his supporters, has been widely criticised as a clumsy knee-jerk reaction from an administration that has lost touch with its electorate.

India's increasingly vulnerable-looking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh denounced Hazare's campaign as a "totally misconceived" attempt to undermine parliamentary democracy, but his words have gained little public traction.

Although officially released on Tuesday evening, Hazare had refused to leave his cell until the authorities lifted restrictions on what he had originally called an indefinite "fast unto death".

In an embarrassing climbdown for Singh's Congress Party-led coalition, he was finally given permission to fast for 15 days in a large open venue normally reserved for religious festivals.

But in a fresh challenge to the authorities, Hazare said he was ready to push beyond that restriction as well.

"My health is fine," he said in a video message released from his jail cell late Thursday.

"I feel I can fast beyond the 15 days permitted by the government. I shall seek permission to fast for another week. I will not stop fighting," he said.

With his trademark white cap and large spectacles, and his espousal of fasting as a form of non-violent protest, the veteran activist is seen by many of his followers as a latter-day Mahatma Gandhi.

The timing could not be worse for Singh, 78, who is already under fire over a succession of multi-billion-dollar corruption scandals that have implicated top officials.

The prime minister's former telecoms minister is currently on trial over a mobile phone licence scam that is thought to have cost the country up to $39 billion in lost revenue.

In an address to parliament on Wednesday, Singh attempted a reasoned argument against Hazare's campaign to strengthen a new anti-corruption bill, stressing that drafting legislation was the "sole prerogative" of parliament.

But that argument was blown away in a maelstrom of protest that saw tens of thousands march through the streets of New Delhi the same day with the message that corruption, not Hazare, was the problem that needed to be addressed.

"The prime minister misses the point," the Times of India said in an editorial on Friday.

"Expectations in new, youth-driven India are higher than ever before, on the street, in college campuses, in company boardrooms. The PM must respond, as the reformist he's known to be," the newspaper said.]]>
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			<title>Crusade against corruption</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/234251/crusade-against-corruption</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/234251/crusade-against-corruption#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 18 Aug 11 16:50:55 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=234251</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[In his activism, Hazare has aped the tactics of Gandhi, with his civil obedience and public fasts.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare’s relentless crusade, which has included fasts unto death and street protests, has received both support and scorn. While granting that his indignation is sincere, it is important to point out that Hazare may end up being an inadvertent foe of the anti-corruption cause. In his activism, Hazare has aped the tactics of Gandhi, with his civil obedience and public fasts. But whereas Gandhi was fasting to gain independence from the British and an end to Hindu-Muslim violence, Hazare is merely trying to get an anti-corruption bill amended so that it does not exempt the prime minister, judiciary and much of the bureaucracy from the watchful eye of an independently-appointed ombudsman. That is certainly a problem with the bill but Hazare may want to tone down his rhetoric and actions. The chief weakness of the anti-corruption bill is, ironically, solely Hazare’s responsibility. Too much power is vested in the hands of the ombudsman who may end up being as unaccountable for his actions as the politicians he rails against.

Whatever reservations one may have about Hazare’s activism, there is no denying his passion. Imperfect though the anti-corruption bill may be, he has forced politicians to acknowledge him and at the very least pay lip service to his cause. It is hard to feel slightly envious while assessing his impact from across the border. The issue of corruption has been at the forefront in Pakistan too but here public anger is co-opted by adventurers, both military and civilian, who use corruption as an excuse to take power and politicians who promise to eliminate corruption but end up targeting only their political foes. From the Ehtesab Bureau to the National Accountability Bureau, the anti-corruption fight is limited only to those who are unlucky enough not to be in power. There is no doubting that Pakistan could benefit from an Anna Hazare of its own, one who has the courage to rise above political zeal, galvanise an apathetic public and demand across-the-board accountability for all political actors in the country.

 

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Arrival of the neo-Gandhian</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/234254/arrival-of-the-neo-gandhian</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/234254/arrival-of-the-neo-gandhian#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 18 Aug 11 16:01:48 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[avirook.sen]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Fasting was a key weapon in Gandhi's many battles over much larger issues.]]>
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				<![CDATA[At a time when the world is taking to the streets for one thing or another — to overthrow repressive regimes in the Arab world or loot television sets in the UK — India is not to be left behind.

Over the last few days, a number of adjectives have been used to describe the outpouring of public frustration that has filled the streets of urban India. The protests against corruption have been called ‘historic’, ‘a watershed’, ‘a revolution’ and, occasionally, ‘a circus’. All these epithets apply, but there is something else that this week marks. And that is the arrival of the neo-Gandhian.

At the centre of all this is the diminutive Anna Hazare, with the correct attire and headdress, who is asserting his right to peaceful protest via an old method perfected to peak potency by Mahatma Gandhi: the fast unto death.

Gandhi had undertaken a number of fasts during his lifetime. Not all of them were on issues that affected an entire nation. He had, at various times, refused food for reasons as different as self-purification; the ‘detection of untruth’ among ashram-ites, and later for unacceptable sexual behaviour by boys and girls in ashrams; the seduction of his son by a married woman, who he wished to shame; pay raises for workers in Ahmedabad’s textile mills (whose owners were his friends), and so on.

Of course, fasting was a key weapon in his many battles over much larger issues, and not necessarily against an oppressive establishment. His fasts for communal harmony were directed against his own people. But he left the British bemused in 1932 by undertaking a fast against the proposed separate electorate for Harijans. The proposal actually gave Harijans two votes, a general category vote and another in their own electorate, but Gandhi saw this as a religious issue, a codification of separateness, something he would give his life to prevent (though Nehru thought it a sideshow).

The reasons for Gandhi’s success lay not just in his saintly stature or the moral force of his argument. It owed just as much to his belief in arbitration, conciliation and his ability to calibrate escalation.

Of the Ahmedabad workers’ strike, Louis Fischer writes in her biography of Gandhi: “He probably would have fasted against the workers had they opposed arbitration. The principle of arbitration is essential to Gandhi’s philosophy… It teaches people tolerance and conciliation”.

A less sympathetic view illustrating the same point can be found in a Time Magazine piece on Gandhi’s fast unto death against the ruler of Rajkot in 1939. Gandhi was in poor health as he commenced his fast, and neither the ruler of Rajkot nor the British government wanted a dead Mahatma on their hands. But “if Britain gave in… and forced the Thakore sahib to reform his government, a bad precedent would be set”. It appeared to be one of those immovable object meets irresistible force situations. Time’s March 13, 1939 story went on to say: “The Bombay stock exchange closed, there were dire predictions of a great mass uprising in India if the beloved Mahatma died. Then this week the Marquess of Linlithgow, India’s viceroy, sent a message to him. Immediately thereafter news came that the sick saint had broken his fast. His apparent inducement: an emergency meeting of the British Cabinet called that night at No. 10 Downing Street to appease Mahatma Gandhi”.

The vital difference between the Gandhian and the neo-Gandhian is that one is able to calibrate, compromise and reconcile, and the other is not. Anna Hazare and ‘team Anna’, as they are referred to, seem to believe that only their draft of a bill against corruption is valid. End of discussion.

Currently, however, the neo-Gandhians enjoy one huge advantage. Their immediate adversaries seem to be incredibly stupid. The state machinery in India moved first to prevent Anna’s fast by arresting him, denying him bail — and putting him in the same prison now occupied by some of India’s most corrupt politicians. Hours later, when the irony dawned on them, they were begging him to leave jail. Meanwhile, rivers of people flowed through cities across India howling injustice and courting arrest.

The neo-Gandhians had arrived. 

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Anti-corruption protest: Islamabad activist plans Anna Hazare-style fast</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/234191/businessman-plans-fast-against-corruption</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/234191/businessman-plans-fast-against-corruption#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 18 Aug 11 11:50:52 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=234191</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Akhtar says campai­gn is for bringi­ng a bill in parlia­ment agains­t corrup­tion and to cut budget of the army.]]>
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				<![CDATA[An Islamabad businessman plans a fast against corruption and high military spending, mirroring a move in neighbouring India where efforts to stop popular anti-graft activist Anna Hazare from a hunger strike this week sparked national protests.

The protest by Jahangir Akhtar, an Islamabad businessman who has fasted before to draw attention to bad governance, is not slated to begin until after the Muslim fasting month of Ramazan ends.

He says the campaign is for "Pakistan to bring a bill in the parliament against corruption ... and to cut the budget of the army of Pakistan."

But Akhtar says although he supports Hazare's protest, the Gandhian-style campaigner is not his inspiration.

"I announced my hunger strike before Anna Hazare, but due to Ramazan I postponed it, because our custom in Pakistan is that I cannot take water during Ramazan."

Akhtar plans to start his strike on September 12.

Akhtar says he hopes he will draw enough attention to the issue that an anti-corruption bill will be introduced in the National Assembly, and that funds will be directed away from the military budget and towards tackling issues that affect the population, like the nation's beleaguered power sector.

"Pakistan is a developing country, and in our country the two most important problems are corruption and the high percentage of expenditure that goes on our army budget."

Pakistan is also regularly listed as one of the world's most corrupt countries, with Transparency International raking it as the 34th most corrupt in 2010.

"In Pakistan the situation is worse now," Akhtar said. "The economic crisis is here, terrorism is here, there is political instability. There are a lot of problems that reflect on our society. I am trying to show - and say - the Pakistan common man has power."]]>
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			<title>Indian spokesman points finger at US over anti-corruption protests</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/234170/indian-spokesman-points-finger-at-us-over-anti-corruption-protests</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/234170/indian-spokesman-points-finger-at-us-over-anti-corruption-protests#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 18 Aug 11 10:23:38 +0500</pubDate>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Congress party spokesman Rashid Alvi latched onto comments made last week by the US State Department.]]>
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				<![CDATA[A spokesman for India's ruling party has suggested the United States might have a role in the wave of anti-corruption protests posing a growing challenge to the government.

Indian leaders have traditionally been suspicious that foreign interference may lie behind any opposition movement, although recent administrations have taken a more internationalist outlook and built strong ties with the US.

Congress party spokesman Rashid Alvi latched onto comments made last week by the US State Department in which Washington said it counted on India "to exercise appropriate democratic restraint" when handling protests.

"The US had never spoken about any movement in India. This is the first time that it did," Alvi was quoted as saying by the Times of India on Thursday.

"We show the path of democracy to others, what was the need for the US to say it? This has created suspicion."

Anna Hazare, a veteran anti-corruption campaigner, has become a figurehead of public discontent after inspiring huge protests against graft and bribery among officials.

"Anna is alone. He has no organisation. Then how did this movement start and grow?" Alvi said.

"Who are these people spreading the word on Internet and telephones?"

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself hinted at outside interference during an address to parliament on Wednesday.

"We are now emerging as one of the important players on the world stage," he said.

"There are many forces that would not like to see India realise its true place in the comity of nations. We must not play into their hands."

Indira Gandhi, the former prime minister who suspended democratic rule in India amid political turmoil in the mid-1970s, routinely blamed a "foreign hand" for many of the country's problems and the phrase remains highly potent among politicians.

US State Department spokeswomen Victoria Nuland, who made the remarks that Alvi picked up on, moved to diffuse the row, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

"There was some extremely inaccurate reporting out of India... that the United States had issued some sort of strong statement, which we did not issue," she told reporters in Washington.]]>
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			<title>Anna Hazare to leave jail, stage public fast</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/234149/anna-hazare-to-leave-jail-stage-public-fast</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/234149/anna-hazare-to-leave-jail-stage-public-fast#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 18 Aug 11 08:16:37 +0500</pubDate>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=234149</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Hazare to fast with his supporters for 15 days at Ramlila Maidan, an open venue in Delhi.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The veteran activist at the heart of mass anti-corruption protests that have swept India was to leave jail Thursday after striking a deal with police over his plans to stage a public hunger strike.

Tens of thousands of Indians across the country have taken to the streets in recent days in a spontaneous national protest inspired by the 74-year-old Anna Hazare's campaign to strengthen a new anti-corruption law.

The movement has deeply shaken the Congress Party-lead coalition of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had condemned Hazare's campaign as "totally misconceived" and a threat to India's parliamentary democracy.

Hazare was arrested on Tuesday morning as he prepared to begin a "fast unto death" in a New Delhi public park to push for amendments to the anti-graft bill recently introduced in parliament.

In the face of mounting protests, police ordered his release, but Hazare refused to leave Tihar jail until the authorities lifted restrictions limiting his planned fast to three days.

After lengthy negotiations a compromise was reached in the early hours of Thursday, allowing Hazare to fast with his supporters for 15 days at Ramlila Maidan, an open venue in Delhi used for political rallies and festivals.

"The police offered seven days, he wanted it for one month, so in the course of the negotiations we agreed on 15 days," said Aswathi Muralidharan, a spokesman for Hazare's India Against Corruption campaign.

"There is no police limit on the number of people who can come to Ramlila Maidan. Anna is satisfied with the conditions and that is why he has agreed to leave Tihar (jail)," Muralidharan told AFP.

Hazare has actually been fasting ever since his arrest, but the public hunger strike will begin at 3:00pm (0930 GMT).

In scenes not witnessed in the capital for decades, tens of thousands marched through the heart of the city on Wednesday in a spontaneous display of anger at the endemic corruption that blights every level of Indian society.

Schoolchildren, office workers, retired government officers, army men and even a group of eunuchs were among those who rallied at the India Gate monument to call for an end to official graft.

The size of the protest and similar demonstrations in other cities piled pressure on Singh's government at a time of public outrage over a succession of multi-million-dollar scandals.

Singh's former telecoms minister A. Raja is currently under trial over a telecom licence scam that is thought to have cost the country up to $39 billion in lost revenue.

But corruption is most vividly felt in people's everyday lives, with seemingly endless requests for backhanders to secure everything from phone connections to birth certificates and school admissions letters.

The prime minister told parliament on Wednesday that Hazare's arrest had been justified by his refusal to accept the police restrictions on his planned fast.

"The path (Hazare) has chosen... is totally misconceived and fraught with grave consequences for our parliamentary democracy," Singh said as he was repeatedly interrupted by cries of "shame" from opposition benches.

Singh said using a public fast to try to shape the anti-corruption law constituted a direct challenge to the government.

"The question is who drafts the law and who makes the law," Singh told a packed lower house, adding that legislation was the "sole prerogative" of lawmakers.

The anti-corruption campaign has elevated Hazare into an enormously popular national figure.

His espousal of fasting as a form of protest, coupled with his trademark white cap and spectacles, have led to comparisons with his own professed hero, independence icon Mahatma Gandhi.]]>
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			<title>Indian government struggles with mass protests</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/234067/indian-government-struggles-with-mass-protests</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/234067/indian-government-struggles-with-mass-protests#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 18 Aug 11 01:27:46 +0500</pubDate>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[An anti-corruption campaigner whose protests have shaken the Indian government is to begin a hunger strike.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[India's graft-tainted government faced a growing crisis on Thursday, with the country rocked by mass anti-corruption protests that have pitted the prime minister against a popular hunger striker.
Rallies continued late into the night across India on Wednesday in support of veteran campaigner Anna Hazare, 74, who remained in a New Delhi jail after being arrested to prevent him starting a public fast in a city park.

Although the police have ordered his release, Hazare has refused to leave prison until the authorities withdraw restrictions on his planned hunger strike.

Tens of thousands of protesters gathered on Wednesday in Delhi and other cities in a direct challenge to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who said Hazare's fast was "totally misconceived" and undemocratic.
Hazare's protest, which is focused on what he sees as a watered-down anti-corruption law introduced in parliament, has attracted support from India's middle classes as well as constant media coverage.

He was arrested on Tuesday morning along with thousands of supporters in a much-criticised police action as he prepared to start his "fast unto death" to push for changes to the anti-graft bill.
"He will continue to sit in the jail unless he is allowed to fast unconditionally," Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer backing Hazare, told reporters. Aides say he has refused meals but has been drinking water.
Wednesday's rally in Delhi piled pressure on Singh's government at a time of public outrage over a succession of multi-million-dollar scandals involving senior ministers.

Organisers estimated the size of the crowd marching from the India Gate monument at more than 60,000. Independent witnesses put the number at between 20,000 and 30,000.

The prime minister earlier told parliament that Hazare's arrest was justified by his refusal to accept police restrictions limiting his planned fast in the park to three days.

"The path (Hazare) has chosen ... is totally misconceived and fraught with grave consequences for our parliamentary democracy," Singh said as he was repeatedly interrupted by cries of "shame" from opposition benches.

Many observers believe Hazare's arrest reflected concern he was emerging as the focus point for a broader protest movement against Singh's government, which is also grappling with an economic slowdown and high inflation.]]>
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			<title>Anna Hazare determined to resume fast as police mull release</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/233013/anna-hazare-determined-to-resume-fast-as-police-mull-release</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/233013/anna-hazare-determined-to-resume-fast-as-police-mull-release#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 16 Aug 11 18:25:35 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=233013</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Hazare was arrested for defying a protest ban, however he was soon offered a release minus the fast, which he refused.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The arrest of India's leading anti-corruption campaigner hours ahead of a planned hunger strike on Tuesday has set off nationwide protests, putting the government on the spot over its commitment to fighting graft in Asia's third-largest economy. What has complicated matters further is that the anti-graft activist has vowed to resume his fast-unto death if released.

In a worrying sign for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in risky crackdown against the anti-graft movement, spontaneous protests broke out across cities in India. From candle light vigils to street protests, more and more people came out in support of the 74-year-old social activist Anna Hazare.

A police spokesman told Reuters an order had been sent to a jail where Hazare was held for him to be released, a stunning turn-around only hours after authorities ordered him held for a week for defying police orders not to protest.

In the capital, Hazare supporters stormed police barricades, while others gathered in front of parliament.

Dressed in his trademark white shirt, white cap and spectacles in the style of independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, Hazare was driven away in a car by plainclothes police early on Tuesday, only hours before he was due to start his fast to death protest aimed at forcing through tougher anti-graft laws.

"If the government stops protests or not, what it can't stop is the anger, which ultimately means bad news for Congress when people go to the polls," said M.J. Akbar, an editor at influential news magazine India Today.

"People expect Singh to be strong on corruption, not to be strong on those who protest against corruption."

Police are expected to release up to 1,500 followers of Hazare who had been detained for defying the police order not to protest, according to local media.

Hazare, a former army soldier, began fasting in detention, his followers said. Initially, he was ordered held for one week and taken to Tihar jail, joining several government officials, including the former telecoms minister, who are under arrest over a multi-billion dollar telecoms graft scandal.

"The second freedom struggle has started ... This is a fight for change," Hazare said in a pre-recorded message broadcast on YouTube. "The protests should not stop. The time has come for no jail in the country to have a free space."

In a country where the memory of Gandhi's independence battles against colonial rule with fasts and non-violent protests is embedded in the national consciousness, the crackdown shocked many Indians across all walks of life.

The question for many is whether Hazare and his movement will grow across the fast-urbanising nation of 1.2 billion people whose increasingly assertive middle class is fed up with constant bribes, poor services and unaccountable leaders.

An anti-graft protester was found dead in a blood-soaked car in Bhopal, where hundreds had taken to the streets. A senior police officer told Reuters it was not clear whether the death was linked to the protests.

Home Minister Palaniappa Chidambaram said Hazare and other leaders had been placed under "preventative arrest" to ensure they did not carry out a threat to protest.

"Protest is welcome, but it must be carried out under reasonable conditions," Chidambaram told a news conference.

Opposition parties demanded Hazare's immediate release.

"A MURDER OF DEMOCRACY"

Hazare has become a serious challenge to the authority of the government in its second term as it reels from a string of corruption scandals and a perception that it is out of touch with millions of Indians hit by near-double-digit inflation.

Both houses of parliament were adjourned for the day after the opposition protested at the arrests of Hazare and his key aides, further undermining the chances that reform bills – seen as crucial for Asia's third-largest economy -- will be passed.

Acting Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi called a top-level emergency meeting with senior cabinet ministers to discuss the escalating crisis.

"This is murder of democracy by the government within the House and outside the House," said Arun Jaitley, a senior leader of the opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

The scandals, including a telecoms bribery scam that may have cost the government $39 billion, have smothered Singh's reform agenda, dented investor confidence and distracted parliament just as the $1.6 trillion economy is being hit by inflation and higher interest rates.

Those arrested included Kiran Bedi, one of India's first female police officers and a widely respected figure for her anti-graft drive. She tweeted from detention that she had refused an offer of bail. She was later released.

Police denied Hazare permission on Monday to fast in a park near a cricket stadium because he had refused to end his fast in three days and ensure no more than 5,000 people took part.

Opposition figures likened the crackdown to the 1975 "Emergency" when then-prime minister Indira Gandhi arrested thousands of opposition members to stay in power.

A HARDENING STANCE

Hazare rose to fame for lifting his village in western state of Maharashtra out of grinding poverty. His social activism has forced out senior government officials and helped create the right to information act for citizens.

Hazare became the unlikely thorn in the side of the Congress-led coalition when he first went on a hunger strike in April to successfully win concessions from the government.

Tapping into a groundswell of discontent over corruption scandals in Singh's government, Hazare lobbied for a parliamentary bill creating a special ombudsman to bring crooked politicians, bureaucrats and judges to book.

Hazare called off that fast after the government promised to introduce the bill into parliament. The legislation was presented in early August, but activists slammed the draft version as toothless, prompting Hazare to renew his campaign.

Watch a slideshow of pictures from protests in India here.]]>
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			<title>India detains anti-graft activist ahead of fast</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/232582/india-detains-anti-graft-activist-ahead-of-fast</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/232582/india-detains-anti-graft-activist-ahead-of-fast#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 16 Aug 11 07:21:44 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=232582</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Indian police detain veteran anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Indian police on Tuesday detained veteran anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare as he prepared to start a banned hunger strike that threatened to become a new focus of protest against the government.

Hazare, 74, was taken into custody at an apartment in eastern New Delhi early in the morning, an hour before he was due to lead a parade to a public park where he was to begin a "fast unto death".

Hundreds of Hazare supporters gathered outside the flat as he was driven away in an unmarked car, shouting slogans of support for him and his campaign to pressure the government into strengthening a new anti-corruption law.

"Plainclothes police came to the apartment where he was staying and asked him to accompany them peacefully," fellow activist Akhil Gogoi told AFP.

Police said they had also detained Kiran Bedi, a retired senior female police officer who is a key supporter of Hazare, and Arvind Kejriwal, another social activist.

"We are holding Hazare in preventive detention until this evening and then we shall decide what to do with him," police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told AFP, adding that the other two were also in custody.

It was unclear whether Hazare, a devotee of Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, would refuse food while being held but Gogoi said leaders of Hazare's campaign would hold an emergency meeting to plan their next move.

The political opposition accused the authorities of an "absolutely undemocratic" act.

Hazare staged a 98-hour hunger strike in April that led to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government allowing him and his supporters to help draft the new anti-corruption law, called the "Lokpal" bill.

The April protest caught the country's attention and was widely supported by celebrities at a time of growing anger over corruption after a string of scandals affecting federal and state ministers.

The proposed Lokpal bill creates a new ombudsman tasked with investigating and prosecuting politicians and bureaucrats, but Hazare wants the prime minister and higher judiciary to come under scrutiny.

Under the draft law, the premier and top judicial figures will be excluded.

Arguing that the law had been watered down, Hazare had planned to begin a second hunger strike on Tuesday.

But police banned the protest, saying that the park was available for only three days and that Hazare had not given an undertaking to limit his fast to that time.

Police had also asked him to ensure that no more than 5,000 supporters would gather at the protest site.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Hindu nationalist group that leads the political opposition in India, described Hazare's detention as an "instigation to aggression".

"It's a bizarre and thoughtless act on the part of the government. It is absolutely undemocratic," BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy told AFP.

"The government, instead of sorting out the issue and allowing a demonstration to take place, is carrying out a barbaric act."

In June, police halted another anti-corruption hunger strike in Delhi when officers broke up a protest by yoga guru Swami Ramdev that had attracted national headlines.

Corruption has crept up the agenda in fast-developing India after a series of scandals, notably a telecom licence scam that is thought to have cost the country up to $39 billion in lost revenue.

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said last week that Washington counted on India "to exercise appropriate democratic restraint" when handling of anti-graft protests.

India rejected the statement as "needless" and said its constitution guaranteed freedom of expression.

"Those who don't agree with this bill can put forward their views to parliament, political parties and even the press," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in his Independence Day speech on Monday.

"However, I also believe that they should not resort to hunger strikes and fasts unto death."

During his April strike, Hazare called for corrupt ministers to be hanged, telling a cheering crowd that "sometimes you need to resort to violence".]]>
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			<title>The rise and fall of Manmohan Singh</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/151867/the-rise-and-fall-of-manmohan-singh</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/151867/the-rise-and-fall-of-manmohan-singh#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 18 Apr 11 18:09:11 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[kuldip.nayar]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=151867</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Manmohan Singh's failure to act when needed have forced him in to the position he is today.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s second tenure is jinxed. He was on top of the world after the visit of US President Barack Obama to Delhi. Manmohan Singh’s words were considered pearls of wisdom. But when one scam after another surfaced, his stock came tumbling down.

Things began with the preparation of the Commonwealth Games and climaxed to the 2G spectrum scandal, costing the exchequer Rs1.68 trillion. The ill-gotten wealth as a result of this was suspected to have gone into the pockets of Dr Singh’s ministers, particularly former communication minister A Raja and his party, the DMK (Dravida Munetra Kazagham) in Tamil Nadu.

At the same time, there was also a disclosure that several Indians had stacked black money, $1.3 trillion, in Swiss banks. As many as 26 names of depositors were with the government, which refused to disclose them because of the understanding reached when the names were obtained.

No one accused Manmohan Singh of corruption. But no one believed his version that he was not aware of the scam. The general impression was that he knew everything and did not act, lest he should endanger his government, which was supported by the DMK and had Raja in the cabinet. It was a dreary time for Manmohan Singh, although his name in foreign countries was not sullied.

The prime minister retrieved his prestige a bit first when he reached an agreement with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and later when he invited Yousaf Raza Gilani to watch the World Cup semi-final match between India and Pakistan at Mohali. The atmosphere of cordiality in India and across the border once again helped him. People talked about his farsightedness and credited him with the effort to normalise relations with Pakistan, something that people have desired despite several setbacks. It looked as if his bad days were over and he was coming out of the darkness.

Now, once again, Manmohan Singh is down in the dumps. This time, the Anna Hazare phenomenon has hit him and his government. Through a fast, Mr Hazare, a Gandhian, galvanised India against corruption, which has seeped into every vital organ of the Indian body. The ground was fertile for the movement. Hazare’s call to remove the cancer of corruption awakened civil society. The Manmohan Singh government became the target. Whatever goodwill that Manmohan Singh had amassed in terms of hope of a possible breakthrough with Pakistan was frittered away. The triumph that the country felt after winning the cricket World Cup pushed back everything for the time being (Pakistan’s militant Hafiz Saeed poured cold water on the peace efforts by denouncing cricket diplomacy).

Manmohan Singh was not helped by his new communication minister, Kapil Sibal, who ‘proved’ that the loss to the exchequer in the 2G spectrum scam was zero. Hazare got a talking point to expose the government’s intention when it was given out that Congress President Sonia Gandhi was willing to concede that the government and civil society should jointly prepare the bill to set up the institution of lokpal (ombudsman) to take steps to root out corruption. One scalp was enough for Hazare and he had Sharad Pawar removed from the cabinet of ministers.

It is probably not Manmohan Singh’s bad luck so much as it is his failure to act when he should have. The Commonwealth Games, which went off well, would have brought him glory if he had dismissed Suresh Kalmadi, chief of the games, straightaway. The prime minister’s office had all the information on Kalmadi’s acts of omission and commission if he were to contemplate action.

Similarly, the prime minister should have sent out Raja from his cabinet the day he received the report from the comptroller and auditor general on the bungling in the 2G spectrum case. Singh was again found wanting on the demand by Hazare to appoint a joint committee to draft a new lokpal bill. Ultimately, he conceded, while giving the impression that the government acted only under pressure.

The prime minister should introspect how and why he has lost in his second tenure. At one time, people were happy that they had a prime minister with good credentials. Today, they say that he is just not ready to leave his position. His advisers can be blamed to some extent. But ultimately, the buck stops with him.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19th,  2011.]]>
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			<title>The revenge of India</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/151359/the-revenge-of-india</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/151359/the-revenge-of-india#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 17 Apr 11 19:13:05 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[jyoti.malhotra]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=151359</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[As large parts of India went to the polls, something had to give beyond the established carnival of the elections.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[There’s something about indelible ink staining the middle finger that generates its own paroxysms of pleasure for the average Indian voter. Just look at the percentages polled in elections to three states and one union territory last week — Tamil Nadu polled 78 per cent, Kerala polled about 75 per cent, Assam in the north-east polled 76 per cent and Puducherry polled 85 per cent. Not to be left out, Kashmiris voted in panchayat, or local self-governing councils in rural areas, for the first time in 10 years, and as much as 78 per cent of the population stood in line to cast their ballot.

According to Ghulam Hassan Dar, a grocery shop owner in Bodhana village in Budhgam district, the participation in the elections has nothing to do with ‘azaadi’ or the Kashmiri struggle, the Indian Express reported. It was really about the resolution of day-to-day problems, bijli, sadak, paani, and the determination that reasonably honest people must be elected to serve. In the frontier district of Kupwara, as many as 86.2 per cent of people exercised their franchise.

So far, nobody in Delhi is taking credit for the largely peaceful exercise. In Kashmir, the extremist Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani had called for a poll boycott, but the people ignored him. In Kerala, an unseemly spat over ageing politicians, sparked off by none other than Rahul Gandhi, dominated the headlines. Assam had none of the bitterness usually associated with the influx of refugees from Bangladesh. And in Tamil Nadu, the Congress sent its own allied leader, Andimuthu Raja, to jail over alleged fraud in which he happily auctioned himself off for millions of rupees to several mobile phone players seeking scarce telecom spectrum.

It’s clearly been the revenge of India against itself, a cleansing as it were, through the ablutions of the electoral process. Corruption has become an overwhelming concern, which is overwhelming caste, class and ideology. As large parts of India went to the polls, something had to give beyond the established carnival of the elections.

Now Jantar Mantar, a 16th century monument built by the Rajput ruler Sawai Man Singh, around which India’s protesters have been given the right to gather and protest and shout their lungs out, is hardly Tahrir Square, although these days we’re all desperately seeking our Egyptian-ness within.

So when Anna Hazare — Anna, in Marathi, is a term of respect, equivalent to abba or father — a well-known Gandhian who has worked in India’s small towns and villages in the footsteps of the Mahatma, sat on a fast-unto-death at Jantar Mantar against the government’s silence over corruption and demanded a bill to institute a lokpal, or national ombudsman, the establishment at first reacted by ignoring him. Anna Hazare was asking that most fundamental of questions: Who has the right to question elected representatives? After all, if politicians have emerged through the grit and grind that consumes most ordinary people, is there a higher body that can question them?

Then, Anna struck a false note. Saying that most voters elected their representatives under the influence of alchohol — Ralegaon Siddhi, Anna’s village in Maharashtra, has a 100 per cent ban on alcohol, besides some amazingly successful experiments in solar energy and integrated watershed management — as well as for a mere 100 rupees, Delhi’s Anna fever began to wane as fast as it had gone viral a week ago. To trash the baby and the bathwater seemed a little excessive, even for a TV-obsessed middle class. Anna’s gilded edge was showing.

We’re all a little wiser this Monday morning. As Jawaharlal Nehru said a long time ago, democracy isn’t the most perfect of solutions for a newly independent India, but this is it, until we can find something better.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18th,  2011.]]>
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			<title>The narrative of the middle class — I</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/150744/the-narrative-of-the-middle-class-%e2%80%94-i</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/150744/the-narrative-of-the-middle-class-%e2%80%94-i#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 16 Apr 11 16:55:31 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[ayesha.siddiqa]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=150744</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[In Pakistan, like in India, this upcoming middle and upper-middle class, is highly opportunistic and politicised.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Certain circles in Pakistan are conceptually endorsing the recent movement in India by Anna Hazare against corruption of politicians. Mr Hazare’s protest is great except that it does not talk about the corruption of corporate India or the civil bureaucracy, which represent the middle class. Sadly, since the middle class has tools to dominate the narrative, they are viewed as drivers of change. Meanwhile, this class loves to criticise politicians because they are easier to target and also to remove when we don’t like them. In India, this process of removing politicians takes the form of election and, in Pakistan, it means military coups or socio-political engineering. In any case, the politicians are under greater microscopic examination than the middle class bureaucracy or other actors. A massive propaganda against bribe-receiving civil bureaucrats in India and military bureaucrats in Pakistan is a rarity.

The problem at the moment is that, despite being as predatory as the traditional elite, the middle class presents itself as rather angelic, mainly due to its ability to control the narrative of both the state and society. Since it is educated, it monopolises media and communication within the country and with the outside world. It uses this influence to knit the myth of the imagined progressive tendencies of the middle class. Progress for them basically means neo-liberalism and economic development. This class posits itself as an alternative to the redundant traditional elite, one which will rescue the uneducated masses who have no capacity to bring change.

In Pakistan, like in India, this upcoming middle and upper-middle class, is highly opportunistic and politicised while being extremely apolitical at the same time. This means that they do not have the patience to struggle through the political system. In Pakistan, for instance, the majority will not even bother to vote but is very critical of politics since they consider this traditional. The political system is shunned because it comprises of dynastic systems. Interestingly, they don’t consider it dynastic behaviour when senior bureaucrats get lucrative jobs or dole out opportunities for their kith and kin. Or even when they are in the political system, power is sought through getting embedded with authoritarian elements of the state or through the power of the gun. The MQM in Pakistan is an example of this. Actually, the middle class has no problem with authoritarianism so long as it installs its members in power.

One of the issues with the middle class in most post-colonial states is that it is more in tune with western social and material development and is frustrated by the slow pace of local politics, which is built around the less-lucky common man. But the change over time is that, in the past, this middle class would turn into Jawaharlal Nehru and muddy their hands in mass politics. The present-day middle class is more elitist and colonial in its attitude and more authoritarian in the way it perceives political change. It does not want to admit that the middle class massively contributes towards the clientelistic orientation of the political system, like everyone else in the country. In fact, clientelism becomes imperative in a society with huge natural disparities.

In Pakistan, this upcoming middle class, estimated at 30 million, proposes to challenge the existing political system through authoritarian means, popularly called the Bangladesh model. In Dhaka, the middle class tried bringing change through building a partnership with the military. The common man, however, did not give up on the political system.

Referring to Pakistan, the middle class narrative expresses frustration with politics because the latter has been unable to deliver true democracy. Such a notion does not bother to remind the people of the fact that Pakistan did not have democracy after 1977. The 1990s were not a decade of democratic rule but of democracy in transition as democracy constantly being ejected by the military, controlling the system from the backseat.

The years under Musharraf were no different except that the style was altered. Instead of sacking the entire parliament, Musharraf kicked out the prime minister and his cabinet. The middle class narrative conveniently ignores the fact that Musharraf parachuted a Citibanker into the political system from constituencies he had never visited. The banker disappeared into oblivion as soon as he lost his job. But I guess he had the right label — middle class.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Following in Gandhi’s footsteps</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/146900/following-in-gandhi%e2%80%99s-footsteps</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/146900/following-in-gandhi%e2%80%99s-footsteps#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 10 Apr 11 18:20:08 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[urvashi.butalia]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=146900</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Anna Hazare is demanding an end to corruption and his words have resonated with Indians across the board.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[As I wrote this, an amazing protest movement was taking place across India. In Delhi, more than 50,000 people were gathered in the heart of the town at the Jantar Mantar observatory. They were joined by hundreds of thousands of people in cities and small towns across India: Mumbai, Ludhiana, Kolkata, Madurai, Bangalore… A petition on the internet supporting the agitation gathered over 250,000 signatures in two days; everywhere there were songs, candlelight marches, people of all colours and classes and a tremendous sense of solidarity.

At the heart of the agitation is one man, slight, in his seventies, a Gandhian and someone who has been consistent in his demands for years. Perhaps the last of the Gandhians, Anna Hazare — along with a dedicated team of supporters and volunteers — is demanding an end to corruption and his words and his call to action have resonated with Indians across the board.

Anna Hazare was on a fast unto death — a tactic and strategy that went out, some might say, with Gandhi, and that no longer has the moral force to move governments or people. And yet, this time it has — people were camping with Anna, as he is affectionately called, they were fasting with him, they were singing with him, and even he seemed surprised at the strength of the response.

Anna’s agitation is demanding the introduction of a piece of legislation that allows citizens’ committees to be formed to judge cases of corruption, from the lowest to the highest levels, right up to the prime minister. He calls this legislation the Jan Lok Pal Bill. The government, too, has one such legislation on the table — introduced as long ago as 1966, the Lok Pal Bill lacks the teeth of the people’s version and it has been fiercely criticised for protecting corrupt politicians.

In informed circles there is considerable discussion on the two bills, and a large number of progressive people, including some members of the National Advisory Council, do not agree with some aspects of the Jan Lok Pal Bill, although they are fully in agreement with its spirit. In a democracy, they ask, can a body be created — and who will create such a body, who will be on it — that has the power to supersede the judiciary? Can a body be created that can hold even the prime minister t0 task, perhaps forcing him to reveal state secrets or to compromise on security aspects? If such a body is supreme and has power over all other democratic institutions — and yet it is not an elected body — how can it be said to be representing the people? And moreover, while tackling corruption at every level is both necessary and imperative, surely the passing of a law will not in itself root out a problem that is so endemic.

Many of Anna’s supporters, and indeed people in his own team, agree with some of these questions and have many of their own. Arvind Kejriwal, an activist who is well known for his use of the Right to Information Act, has also said that in itself the law will not necessarily be adequate, that it will need to be accompanied by police reforms, reform of the judiciary and many other kinds of reforms.

There’s no doubt there are many questions, but there is no denying that Anna’s campaign has struck a chord and it is this that will sustain it. The maximum that can be hoped for is that both parties agree on the principle of having a Lok Pal Bill to address corruption and they form a body to go into the drafting of a revised Bill. Anna’s fast came to an end on Saturday, April 9, after the government issued a gazette notification constituting a 10-member Joint Committee of ministers and civil society activists, including him, to draft an effective Lok Pal Bill.

It’s also clear that this will not in itself change a great deal, but importantly, it will acknowledge that corruption exists and that we need mechanisms to address it. The momentum to go further, to refuse to give bribes, to report those asking for them, will have to come from the people — and if their response to Anna Hazare’s call is anything to go by, they’re more than ready to address this issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 11th,  2011.]]>
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			<title>The Indian Congress and corruption</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/146286/the-indian-congress-and-corruption</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/146286/the-indian-congress-and-corruption#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 09 Apr 11 16:43:57 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[kuldip.nayar]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=146286</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The response of democratic governments should be different from non-democratic ones.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Although a democratic polity with all the outlets, India has been seeking to be heard on corruption. There have been so many scams running into thousands of crores of rupees in the last past few months that the average person has come to believe that the entire system is reeking of corrupt practices. Therefore, when a Gandhian comes forward — Mahatma Gandhi is the only person who evokes respect all over the country — to voice his objection against the sham of the Lokpal (ombudsman) bill the Manmohan Singh government has brought to fight against corruption, people rally around the Gandhian, Anna Hazare, because they find he is correct in pointing out that the measure was fake. His fast unto death that began on April 5, at New Delhi, shook the nation. There were 200-odd rallies in his support in different parts of India. The government compromised because in Hazare’s movement it saw the defiance of civil society, the backbone of the system itself. He broke his fast on April 9 when he had his way.
Hazare’s step was, no doubt, extreme. But nothing else had worked. He met the prime minister one month ago to inform him that the anti-corruption bill the government was piloting was too weak. Hazare also wrote letters to the prime minister and the Congress president to beseech them to give teeth to the bill. Both Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi did not even acknowledge his letters. When the nation demonstrated its anger, the ruling Congress spokesman said that they were willing to discuss all amendments to the bill, provided the gun was not pointed at the ruling party. He meant the fast unto death. Who is to blame? Hazare gave the government ample notice.

The bill provides for the establishment of the Lokpal institution which will be headed by the current or former chief justice of India, with two former chief justices of state high courts or Supreme Court judges. The Lokpal is authorised “to inquire into allegations of corruption against public functionaries”. But the effort comes to naught when complaints to the Lokpal have to be routed through the Lok Sabha speaker or the Rajya Sabha chairperson from the ruling party. Lokpal cannot initiate any action on its own. If it cannot do so, what is the purpose of having such a body?

Obviously, the government wants the person in which it is interested to go scot-free at the time of sifting complaints. Even the New Delhi-controlled Central Bureau of Investigation has powers to go into all cases where public money is involved. But the topmost anti-corruption body, Lokpal, will have no such authority. If the institution comes into being, as laid down in the bill, it will have the topmost judges dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. As for jurisdiction, the Lokpal has no authority to look into the “charges of corruption against the prime minister in matters of national security, maintenance of public order, national defence and foreign relations”. Practically, all other top positions in parliament and government-appointed commissions have been kept out of the purview of the Lokpal. Since ‘public functionary’ is defined as a person who is holding political office or who held it at one time, all bureaucrats are excluded from the Lokpal’s authority. The Manmohan Singh government has once again underlined the fact that the nexus between the rulers and the bureaucrats cannot be even questioned, much less touched.

Ironically, the bill has been brought after 42 years and still it falls short of what is required. It is a tragedy that the Manmohan Singh government has not learnt, even after ruling for eight years, that the Indian people have changed. They want action. When it is not forthcoming, they are not going to sit idle. A joint committee of ministers and civil society activists will meet to draft a new bill and present it to parliament. The government should read the writing on the wall. Some authoritarian rulers in the Arab world did not listen to the outcry of the people and have been consigned to the dustbin of history. The response of democratic governments should be different.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10th, 2011.]]>
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