By Betwa Sharma
A 72-year-old social activist in India has become the people's champion after his threat to fast until he was dead forced the Indian government to act on an anti-corruption bill, which had been dead for decades.
Dressed in simple white clothes, Anna Hazare, a Gandhian activist, went on a hunger strike for four days in Delhi. Thousands of people turned out to support him by lighting candles and chanting slogans, and some even fasted. He ended the fast after the government agreed to form a committee to investigate corruption.
However, now that public euphoria is mellowing, people are questioning whether holding the government at gunpoint is the right way to solve the problems of the world's largest democracy.
Pics: Manish Swarup, AP
Indian social activist Anna Hazare, right, sits during a hunger strike against corruption earlier this month in New Delhi. In response, the government has agreed to form a committee to draft an anti-corruption bill.
Shweta Chaubey, a lawyer based in Mumbai, said that people have to resort to drastic measures when elected leaders and the judiciary, which is also tainted by corruption, fail to deliver.
"People of the country are not left with any other option," she said. "As long as it doesn't affect peace, and as long as it takes us closer to reformation of the system."
On the other hand, some feel that the government acted not because of its genuine desire to eliminate corruption but rather to save face amid growing pressure from the public and media.
"The government may have conceded to his request not because they agree with him [Hazare] on the bill but because ... what if he would have died?" said Abhinav Bhushan, a 26-year-old student in New York.
In his blog, a senior leader of the opposition Bhartiya Janta Party, L.K. Advani, praised Hazare but also criticized "those who revel in spreading a general climate of disdain about politics and politicians."
"Despite the shortcomings of Indian democracy, we still have conscientious and upright politicians in the country, and it is they who still give people optimism and confidence for the future," he wrote.
After Hazare began his fast, the movement spread quickly to cities and towns across the country of 1.2 billion people, as well as to expatriates in foreign countries, through Twitter and Facebook.
The government relented as the protest grew, agreeing to form a 10-member committee, which has five members each from the government and civil society, to draft the Lokpal (Ombudsman) bill.
That led to some concern about civilians getting involved with writing laws, which interferes with the regular institutional processes that are in place within a functioning democracy.
Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer who actively fights corruption in the country and is on the drafting team, said that civilians drafting this law was a more participatory form of democracy that needs to be institutionalized in India.
"Let there be a government bill and a people's bill," he told AOL News. "And let's put it to a vote."
Anupama Jha, head of Transparency International in India, said that civilians and government working together to draft the law was going to be tricky. "The government is not going to make this easy for civil society," she told AOL News.
Jha also pointed out that the bill, which focuses on the punitive aspect of dealing with corruption, was only a "baby step," and that a preventative mechanism needs to be developed, which should include electoral reforms to stop criminals from running in elections.
Bhushan, the activist lawyer, agreed that the sentiment against politicians was indeed "extremely negative" but wasn't "unwarranted."
"They have badly let us down. ... There is a lot of justifiable anger," he said, adding that calls for all politicians to be jailed for corruption weren't helpful.
India currently ranks 87th out of 178 countries on Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index for 2010, faring better than its neighbors Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. A series of scams in the past two years enraged the public, which had become numb to the corruption problem. Even the Commonwealth Games, hosted by India, were marred by allegations of corruption.
Last year, a telecom scandal robbed the treasury of $40 billion, and it is estimated that at least $462 billion was illegally transferred overseas from India between 1948 and 2008.
The extent of the corruption has destroyed faith in the government, sparked fury against politicians and threatens to overshadow the economic gains India has achieved in the past decade. After the recent uprisings in the Middle East, there was talk in India that rooting out corruption needed a revolution.
Though Hazare's hunger strike has divided public opinion, fasting is not new to activists in India. During the independence movement, Mahatma Gandhi fasted to stop violence. Since then, activists have fasted for different causes with varying degrees of success.
Irom Sharmila, 39, has been on a hunger strike for more than 10 years to protest the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in the eastern state of Manipur, which gives the Indian army sweeping powers to fight separatist insurgents, such as shooting on suspicion.
Despite public support within the state for Sharmila's cause, the government has not relented to her demands, and she is force-fed through her nose. Hazare's success has led to frustration for some, since a short hunger strike provoked a huge reaction from the public and the media but one woman's 10-year-long struggle has had no impact.
"Doesn't it all depend on how fancy the cause is?" asked Amit Malhotra, a 22-year-old arts editor in Delhi.
Source: AoL News
