I am one of those educated, net-savvy and very curious youth of India who does not believe in things just because it is told or said by some eminent personality, rather who prefers to hunt through hundreds of resources that are available to validate the truthfulness and ethicality of the same. And only after this verification, who tries to build their opinions based on so called common sense. With this background, when I look at the ‘Anti-corruption movement’ led by Shri Anna Hajare, when I look at the response to it by ‘Common Man’ across the nation and by the government, then only one word comes to my mind and that is ‘Revolution’. In the very next moment I hit the Wikipedia which gives me below elaboration and definition of this word called ‘Revolution’ –
A 'Revolution' is - A fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time. It can be of below two types -
I. Complete change from one constitution to another
ii. Modification of an existing constitution.
OR
Any and all instances in which a state or a political regime is overthrown and thereby transformed by a popular movement in an irregular, extra-constitutional and/or violent fashion.
Revolutions have occurred through human history and vary widely in terms of methods, duration and motivating ideology. Their results include major changes in culture, economy, and socio-political institutions. And the right of revolution is the right or duty of the people of a nation to overthrow a government that acts against their common interests.
To me, the above briefing on Revolution (socio-political) clearly indicates that, it occurs when – The state authority (government) uses the constitutional rights in their own interests and not in the interest of common man of the state (nation). There can be several reasons for such situation to arise, as outdated system, ill moral of the majority of people in the authority and lack of capable leadership. But it starts developing a negative sentiment amongst the common man against the authority. Such sentiment takes time to grow/spread and intensify (based on different factors) and often allows enough time for authority to change. But when the authority refuses to change, then this well spread and intensified negative sentiment takes the form of a state wide movement which in turn overthrows the state authority by means of, may be an irregular, extra-constitutional and/or violent fashion which later history terms as a ‘Revolution’. And the side-effects of such revolution depends on the factors like- nature of the movement (violent/non-violent), number of people involved, involvement of different sections, religions, cults of society, etc.
In this context when I look at our nation, it got its own constitution after a prolonged fight of freedom and after sacrificing countless lives. Since then many governments ruled the nation under different leaderships. I really don’t know exactly from what time the problems like corruption, misuse of constitutional rights to disguise people and inefficiency of authority towards its duties has started becoming prominent. But maybe these were very rare in the initial days of freedom, may be because those people in authority knew the real cost of freedom, they were well bound with moral and ethical obligations, the constitution was well suited for those times. And over the period people started to get the freedom for free (like we have got), all the values and obligations towards society/nation started to get diluted thereby leading to such problems. Or maybe these issues were there since long back but the so called ‘Janata’ was not alert, awake to notice them. Irrespective of all these guesses, the fact is the common man has been suffering from all these issues since so long and the current government has broken all the records in regards to especially corruption. Moreover it has shown great inefficiency in taking actions against until it was forced by the Supreme Court, by the opposition party and by the Janata.
Every movement needs a leader to start it, a leader with all those five qualities which Anna talks about. Thanks to Anna and his team for providing such an able and trustworthy leadership. This movement, like any other movement is being looked at differently by different people. When lacs are seen very optimistic and are providing full support by coming to streets, few are very apathetic and some are strongly opposing the movement. When I interact with people with very neutral and apathetic view, I get to here following argument that they have – “If the ‘Jan Lokpal Bill’ gets implemented then what is the guaranty that corruption will stop? Or what is the guaranty that the people from the Lokpal body won’t get corrupt?” And the other group of people (mostly from or supporting government) opposing the movement has many different arguments. First of all government is trying best by means of treachery and coercion to suppress any effort made towards starting any such movement, as it is seen from the kind of action that was taken against Ramdev Baba and even with Shri Anna Hajare this time. And whoever tries to raise voice, the government adopts very resentful way and starts investigations against that person to find at least something which can defame him/her. Government makes one more argument against such movements calling it as non-constitutional.
But when I do my own investigations by listening to different leaders from the movement, from the government and from the outside; by reading through different news-papers and browsing through different sites and when I apply my own thoughts to all the findings based on common sense, this is how I see all the above arguments/opinions/actions against the movement as baseless, anti-democratic and against human beings very right of revolution – Yes, no one can guarantee that the ‘Jan Lokpal Bill’ if implemented, will check the corruption completely; but if we read through the draft or listen to the explanation given by one of the leaders from the movement like Mr. Kejriwal, then we can clearly see that it will check the corruption at least up to sixty percent. And it is very obvious for me to understand that getting a strongest possible lokpal bill in place is a very first and important step. Once it is through then it won’t be difficult to amend it further to make it more robust and flawless. If the Jan Lokpal bill is put in place then it will act against all the corrupt people and not only against a specific group of people. But whenever someone tries to start the movement against corruption, every time government tries to malign that person’s image in a way or other simply to mislead people and disrupt the movement. If someone himself is corrupt and still wants to have such a strong system in place, this clearly means to me that he/she is ready to face it. Hence I will definitely stand behind such person as the motive, that the person is now fighting for is in the interest of common man and is very divine. When someone calls this movement as non-constitutional, then very first question comes to my mind is “Whether people are for constitution or constitution for people?” I think it is “constitution for people”. Then people have every right to amend or change the constitution whenever they feel it is required. When government is seen unwilling to bring in such change and when people loses faith in the government and political leadership, then the only option left with them to bring in such change is through the public movement and hence there is no question of calling such movement as non-constitutional.
I am one of those India’s common man who is not yet corrupt, who suffers from corruption every now and then, when I seek admission to schools/colleges, when I seek job, when I seek some legal documents from government offices and the list is real big. There are many such problems like corruption, we the common man are suffering from and with all these sufferings we are not living but struggling to live. When we realize this fact, then we tend to accept the situation by simply saying “India ka kuch nahi ho sakta”. But I believe this is the time when we have a chance to change this mind set, this is a time when we can learn to live. Now let’s say it is enough and let’s unite to support this noble movement without discriminating ourselves on the basis of region, religion, cast, party. The very important role that we educated crowed have to play is to make those aware who are unaware of the movement. Let’s educate our families, friends, and neighbors and make them also support and participate in the movement. If we succeed this time to implement this common will of the common man through the means of this non-violent movement, then we defiantly can bring in every such good change that every common man dreams of. Hence I find this movement as a start of a “Revolution” and I feel very lucky to be part of and to witness the same. Don’t you also feel the same…??
