[The statement was issued by the National Alliance of People’s Movements on 14 August. Much has happened since then – the arrest of Anna Hazare – accopanied by silence and often ridicule poured by the radical elite, but in the face of what is perhaps one of the most widespread mass movements in India after Independence. Over the past few days, we have been witness to innumerable demnstrations and marches in almost every colony in Delhi – where no TV camera ever reached or was even expected to when the ‘real’ action is going in in central Delhi. Contrary to the general propaganda and even our own earlier impression, this is no more simply a middle class movement. I am reproducing it here, somewhat belatedly, because it still touches on some of the post important points at issue in the ongoing struggle. – AN]
Anna Hazare Ji and manyothers across India will be starting their fast from August 16th in Delhi demanding an effective Lokpal. NAPM supports the people’s movement for a corruption-free India and urges the citizens of the country to plunge into this struggle. NAPM, along with other organisations is holding relay fast, human chains, public meetings and other programmes, in Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Narmada Valley, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Bhubaneshwar, Bangalore, Mysore, Mou, Balia, Allahabad, Muzzafarnagar and other places. We urge our members and supporters to join this call and challenge the corrupt and defensive governments at the Centre and the states.
We strongly disapprove of the way in which government has been trying to put severe restrictions on holding peaceful protests in the capital, and Delhi Police under the garb of implementing the Supreme Court’s Guidelines is imposing unnecessary conditions on protests, as it did early this month on SANGHARSH anti-land acquisition protest, AISA-DYF anti-corruption protest and others. For an independent democratic country like ours, imposition and insistence on police permission and strict guidelines for holding peaceful protests and Sataygraha seems completely contradictory and only shows shrinking spaces for democratic freedom of expression and curb on fundamental rights of its citizens.
The public outrage at the scandal-a-day record of Governments of all political hues whether it is the Central Government or that of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar or others and the groundswell of support to concrete action culminating in the Lokpal debate is a welcome sign for our democracy. This is an opportune moment for effective systemic measures to deal with both ‘bhrashtachar’ and ‘atyachaar’ (corruption & oppression / systemic violence) at all levels. The powers-that-be (not just Governments but businesses, corporations and other entities too) must defer to public opinion, as people do not only have a ‘vote’ but also a ‘voice’. Governments cannot use the excuse that ‘being elected’; it is the only agency with legitimacy.
We are conscious that the campaign for an effective Lokpal against corruption is not a full and final solution to all that ails our country today. It should be viewed as part of an ongoing process that can be built upon by various groups using myriad democratic styles, strategies, issues and foci. The raising of consciousness can only benefit democratic processes and hopefully constructive engagement will broaden the agenda of the current campaign to include issues of governance, secularism and most important communities control over jal (water) jangal (forests), jameen (land), khanij (minerals) and of course, mehnat (hard work) of the toiling masses, who are the actual contributors to this nation’ s development .
We also recognize and re-stress the reality that it is this large section of the Indian population; the gareeb, shoshit, peedit, shramik that faces the brunt of corruption most, day in and day out, in their battle for survival with dignity and we need to reach out to them.We can’t limit corruption only in monetary terms, but deal with it in terms of the systemic oppression, inequity and inhumanity perpetuated by political and non-political entities all.We are of the strong view that the battle against corruption is located within the wider struggles against corporatization, capitalism, communalism, casteism, patriarchy, criminality and consumerism which are challenges that any well-meaning, truly democratic public platform must address.
NAPM along with many of its struggling comrades and supporters has been at the forefront of the struggle against corruption, exposing the fraud in rationing in Assam, rehabilitation in Narmada Valley, and irregularities in Lavasa or Adarsh Housing Society among many others. Our struggle is against the loot of natural wealth and human dignity by corporations and state under a destructive and completely unsustainable development paradigm.
We hold that the Lokpal bill drafted by the Government is toothless and defeats the very purpose it is meant for.We believe that any law to deal with corruption must be comprehensive and provide for expeditious action and deal with corruption not only at the higher executive level but also at mid and lower levels and bring in politicians and corporations too in its ambit. Action at this moment can help deepen our discourse and enlarge the scope of campaign to encompass issues such as governance, development planning from the grassroots, opposition to violent and oppressive development projects, secular ethos etc. The Lokpal Bill is with the Parliamentary Standing Committee and we appeal to the people of India to submit their opinions on the Bill, which will have to radically address many of the gaps in the present Government Draft.
NAPM calls upon the Government to pay heed to the diversity of voices and respect the evolving public opinion to introduce a series of fool-proof, effective anti-corruption measures and pass a strong Lokpal Bill, dealing with corruption at all levels, after holding participatory and wide-spread consultations. We also call upon the people of India to take forward this struggle against corruption in whatever democratic way possible, by respecting the plurality and diversity of the country.
Medha Patkar, Sandeep Pandey, Prafulla Samantara, Maj Gen Sudhir Vombatkere, Suniti S R, Sister Celia, P Chennaiah, Ramakrishna Raju, Suhas Kolhekar, Akhil Gogoi, Anand Mazgaonkar, Rajendra Ravi, Madhuresh Kumar
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
Dynastic politics, whereby any MP or Minister keeps on loading our legislatures and parliaments with his wives,sons,daughters and in-laws who are all potential out-laws ,is also corruption. It never ceases to surpise me that we have accepted without any comment a woman without any particular qualification and her son and possibly her daughter to continue the Nehru- Gandhi line as if India is a zamindari. We have paid too high a price for having Nehru as our first Prime Minister.And to see people talking of the Congress High Command almost as if it were akin to the High Command of the German Wehrmacht is obscene and shameful and denotes a country bereft of self-respect. And taking Nehru dynasty cue we have Karunanidhi and his clan,Yedyurappa with his sons,the Bellary brothers, Sharad Pawar and his daughter and so on and so forth in every level of our political life. This is rampant corruption also. When will another Anna Hazare come to chase these families out of Indian politics?
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The need of the hour is to refine this movement and provide it a concrete ideological stance so as to firmly determine its future course of action. Till now, this movement seems to be bereft of any particular imagination and thought, so much so, that rank fascists and communalists are riding piggyback on Hazare and co. with the sole aim of capturing power. If the campaign seeks to bring some effective change in the structure of India’s polity, it will have to grow from a movement driven by nonsensical atavistic anger to a movement driven by a particular thought, ideology and vision. Unless this happens, the citizenry of India may cry their lungs out, their concerns will continue to get thwarted and sidelined by those in power.
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That can happen only if people bound by a common socio-economic ideology come together to form a new political party that has an agenda focussing on systemic reforms leading to a more transparent, representative & progressive government. A government that’s an enabler instead of a big brother. But the rider is that these people will have to come on board without any baggage of other responsibilities & with a solitary goal of cleansing our political system. Not unlike the revolutionaries of our independence struggle though theirs was an armed revolution while what I’m advocating here is a political one. This might come across as a bit too extreme for comfort but we live in desperate times that call for desperate measures.
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On topic…
“We are conscious that the campaign for an effective Lokpal against corruption is not a full and final solution to all that ails our country today. It should be viewed as part of an ongoing process that can be built upon by various groups using myriad democratic styles, strategies, issues and foci. The raising of consciousness can only benefit democratic processes and hopefully constructive engagement will broaden the agenda of the current campaign to include issues of governance, secularism and most important communities control over jal (water) jangal (forests), jameen (land), khanij (minerals) and of course, mehnat (hard work) of the toiling masses, who are the actual contributors to this nation’ s development .”
If we go by the rhetoric of “Team Anna” so far, corruption doesn’t go beyond financial irregularities like bribery, misappropriation of funds, nepotism etc. And if one is really serious about improving our state of affairs, these financial irregularities would surely not be at the top of one’s list of priorities. As mentioned in this release itself (the part quoted here), the most important issues today are the issues of jal, jangal, jameen, khanij & mehnat (I’ll also add two more equally critical issues here – shiksha & paardarshita). “Corruption” as defined by “Team Anna” is a symptom of the systemic sickness that has created these core issues. And even in the unlikely event of the institution of Lokpal delivering all that’s being promised by IAC, it would be analogous to allopathic medicine that just suppresses the symptoms rather that curing the cause.
The fact that the movement is using the issue of corruption as its fulcrum exposes its superficiality, shortsightedness & tendency to play to the gallery. I dare Team Anna to gather even a fraction of support it has mobilized during this movement on another far critical issue that’s facing us – the prospect of India becoming a dumping ground for bio-waste (read : Monsanto’s brazen bid to dump its GM crops that have failed all checks in the US).
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This is JP movement part 2 with all its exuberance and shortcomings…there can be no common political platform on which all these actors in the present unfolding drama can stand….the actors range from middle class PLU to the RSS to the marginalized to the common man who is tired and sick of corruption…..unfortunately they will neither be able to agree on a common agenda nor can they agree to the government’s bill…
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I fully endorse the views of Anshul Kumar Pandey.
Besides supporting it, the need of the hour is to refine the Anna Hazare movement so that:
1. It does not limit itself to passing the bill only but to effective stept for actual eradication of corruption from all strata of our society.
2. And it does not confine itself to only monetary corruption, but strikes at all other forms if corruption: moral, judicial and communal as well.
2. We should pray and try to our best that it is not hijacked by fascists and communal forces.
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Dear KM Furqan
How could we bring your suggestion to fore front? By keep distancing from the movement and waiting for the fascist forces to take over. Those who indulge in criticism without any strong logic, must live in safe side of this rotten system. their arguement is red herring than aginst this movement. A section of religious group and Dalit group see it through their jaundiced spectacle, so they interpret this movement according to their convenience. Let we can think in this way, BJP led govt would be in Power, then can you behave in this way if opposition congress support this movement. every one trying to take fruit of according to its taste. Unfortunately, we don’t have good option as opposition but we couldn’t hold ransom for this to not to support movement. Time is the most powerful and will write its own history and can’t spare even those who keep themselves aside as mute spectator.
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“We are of the strong view that the battle against corruption is located within the wider struggles against corporatization, capitalism, communalism, casteism, patriarchy, criminality and consumerism which are challenges that any well-meaning, truly democratic public platform must address.” Can’t disagree with the first five forces in Indian society. But I think it is typical of NAPM to then add, in the same breath, criminality and consumerism. Not that one is for criminality or even consumerism. But for eg, ‘consumerism’ needs to be defined further and located in the development of capitalism I think. Or it can and will be understood as a sort of asceticism, especially given the alleged Gandhian background. A few years down the road, no one is going to be fascinated with that. I say this to NAPM of course, not to Anna Hazare.
The nature of the ‘movement’ around Anna Hazare was best symbolised by the Gandhi topi clad guests at a Mumbai fashion show. Capitalism is more wily than just confrontations of the police with activists and sections of farmers and others. It can use a Gandhi or Nehru, let alone Anna Hazare. They say the Azad Maidan crowd stood for hope. What, I wonder, are they hoping for? Where were they in 1993, when demons stalked Mumbai, (Bombay then), swords in hand or armed with fuel to burn a few Muslims ? Too young to know what was happening probably. And Anna himself? Probably meditating in Ralegaon Siddhi. I wonder if there are any “minorities” there? Probably not. (Must find out). Anyway I suppose he does not consider communalism to be a form of corruption. Corruption of one’s soul, corruption of that very idea of India that people keep talking about.
But Medha was not the only one to turn up outside Tihar to support Anna Hazare. Saffron clad Baba Ramdev was there too. And he has thereafter moved on, to get linked in with the Shetkari Sanghatan and to support an all India kisan formation. Where this development leads would be interesting to watch. We have the ‘jawan’ already in Anna, now we may get the ‘kisan’ too, in this so called 2nd Independence movement, looking for the Enemy.
Is Baba Ramdev a Gandhian too I wonder. I hope he is. I really hope he is.
Meanwhile it would be a good idea for NAPM to look at the NCPCR version of the Lokpal bill and to engage with it.
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A protest dharna was organised in kolkata at college sqr.there were many organisations to support anna .it was attended by dilip chakraborty,pranab banerjee,himanshu haldar,debjit dutta,swapan ganguly,col bc lahiri,ramtanu dutta,chhoton das ,murad bhai and many others. without mike the meeting lasted for more than 4 hours.we have planned a programme on 24th at Bank of India More from 12 noon…apart from NAPM ,it was supported by many groups and indicviduals…vijay sharma
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there is little possibility of ideologically changing team anna. we should carry on our struggles independently. what we can do is hold simultaneous demonstrations to add to the weight of the present movement and so force the government to come up with a good lokpal bill which will strengthen our hands. the way in which the IAC were able to get the government to allow them to protest in the way they wanted has to be admired. it happened because of the huge mass support they got. let us increase this mass support even if we have reservations about the ideology of the IAC
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