Friday, August 19, 2011

Reply to 'Open letter' to Anna Hazare

I am too small a person to reply on Anna's behalf, but what who cares... here goes... Replies in Red.


Dear Shri Anna Hazareji,

Gandhiji never resorted to coercion to have his way. Coercion is not used even by ana. Yes, Gandhi employed non-cooperation which is similar to what Anna is using



He never used fasting to blunt his opponent to accept his views and ideals. Gandhi sat on a fast even to solve internal problems of congress, leave aside national issues, for which he fasted repeatedly.



He never abused the British whose rule he fought against (except for one odd remark about a ‘gutter inspector').  But you call the Prime Minister a ‘liar' because he has accepted the Cabinet decision not to include the Prime Minister within the purview of the Lokpal.  Point is, was Anna right when he said this? Yes he was



Dr. Singh is a team leader and does not impose his views on his Cabinet. He hardly has viewpoints. He has only post-activity remarks


This is functioning in the true spirit of democracy where the collective wisdom of the majority is respected as against one's own personal views. He is the Prime Minister, for God’s sake. He needs to have views and opinions for the people to know what he stands for. 


Did Gandhiji ever tell the British: “Come on, jail me,” when he went on fast. No, because he did not want to deny the British government its right to action. Jail Bharo Andolan was used many times by protesters including Mahatama Gandhi
Aren't you whipping up mob hysteria and anger just because the government has not accepted six out of your 40 clauses? Those six are core demands. It is not a fraction. 


Do you mean to say that there can be only your thinking and there shall be no alternative? Says who? Everyone says ‘corruption is bad’. Nobody has ideas on what to do about it. Anna clearly has more than anyone else in the country. 


Your silence about the mining scam in Karnataka is baffling. Why to mix issues?


But you choose to vent your righteous ire on the Prime Minister and his government! Don’t they deserve it?


You say you are not against democracy but against the government. The government, elected by the people can be thrown out at the next hustings. This is democracy. If you are in favour of democracy, why are you against a democratically-elected government that is given a mandate of just five years to govern? So we should be gagged in the time in between those 5 years?

You did a yeoman service, pushing the government to table the Lokpal Bill in this monsoon session. But you cannot say that ‘it should be my team's version and nothing else.' Why not? Does democracy have a compulsion on compromises?
You want to bring all three main pillars of democracy — the legislative, the executive and the judiciary — under the jurisdiction of the Lokpal to function as an effective single pillar for deciding on crime and punishment. Yes
The dance of democracy unleashed by you and your team has every danger of destroying our democracy. The protest is more democratic and, by virtue of signing the agreements, has the mandate of democracy. How, exactly, does it demean democracy?

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:19 AM

    commendable!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Do you mean to say that there can be only your thinking and there shall be no alternative? Says who? Everyone says ‘corruption is bad’. Nobody has ideas on what to do about it. Anna clearly has more than anyone else in the country.


    Your silence about the mining scam in Karnataka is baffling. Why to mix issues?

    I cant even believe armchair cynics came up with these remarks...BTW, I gave pretty much same answers!

    ReplyDelete