Jantar Mantar India's Tahrir Square,Anna Hazare Indian Mohamed Bouazizi – Massive Spontaneous Protest against Endemic Corruption
Indian Government puts Hurdles in 2G Telecom Case Fails as Supreme Court orders Daily Hearings from April 13,Second Chargesheet on April 24
April 8, 2011Wind Power in China – 3 Signs of Trouble as Wind Energy Capacity Doubles – Declining Growth Inevitable
April 8, 2011
India’s Jantar Mantar where Anna Hazare a respected 73 year old social activist is holding a fast unto death to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill against endemic corruption amongst India public officials is turning into a spontaneous mass revolution.The Fast which has entered the 4th day has gathered supporters in the millions across India.The Indian middle and upper classes which generally don’t participate in these protests and are not affected by the daily travails of the common classes have joined in probably for the first time.The popularity of Anna has easily crossed that of the Indian cricket icons who won the World Cup recently.The Indian government and ruling party still has to come to terms with this corruption protest,wrangling over the technicalities even as its remaining moral authority decreases each day.
Tunisia’s Mohamed Bouazizi was an unlikely and unknown here protesting againt the daily suffering of the high handedness of authroties while Tahrir Square in Egypt was where the regime toppled.India is still far different from those situations as there is no demand for the government to go,only for a strict anti-corruption law.However Anna Hazare and Jantar Mantar have the ability to become far more than simple a protest on Lokpal Bill.It could be the tide which washes away the abject helplessness of Indians over the corruption of the powerful and rich.Here is a short excerpt of Jantar Mantar and about Anna Hazare
“In central New Delhi, near the upscale Connaught Place shopping hub, the only remaining traditional architecture is an outdoor astronomical observatory built by an enlightened maharajah in the eighteenth century. Jantar Mantar (or Yantra Mandir, meaning “temple of instruments”) is a group of large stone and masonry structures calibrated to chart the movement of celestial bodies. Now a regular stop on the Delhi architectural circuit, the cryptic, ruinous objects retain a sense of scientific exactitude, an aura of REXesque “hyper-rationality.””
Anna Hazare was born to Baburao Hazare and Laxmi Bai, an unskilled labourer family .Anna Hazare was instrumental in bringing about various social and economic reforms in his state Maharashtra and his own village.He has given up all relations with his relatives to concentrate of making India a better place.On 9 September 1998, Anna Hazare was imprisoned in the Yerawada Jail after being sentenced to simple imprisonment for three months by the Mumbai Metropolitan Court.The sentencing came as huge shock at that time to all social activists. Leaders of all political parties except the BJP and the Shiv Sena came in support of him .Later due to public protest, the Government of Maharashtra ordered his release from the jail.In the early 2000s, Anna Hazare led a movement in Maharastra state, which forced the Government of Maharashtra to repeal the earlier weak act and pass a stronger Maharashtra Right to Information Act.n 2003, the corruption charges were raised by Hazare against 4 ministers of the belonging to the NCP. He started his ‘fast unto death’ on 9 August 2003. He ended his fast on 17 August 2003 after a one man commission, headed by the retired justice .The report led to Suresh Jain and Nawab Malik resigneing from the cabinet in March 2005.
It is much bigger than Lokpal Bill, say protesters
Jantar Mantar — the Hyde Park of Delhi — has now become the nerve centre of a movement against corruption with thousands of people from across the country flocking here to express solidarity with activist Anna Hazare.
As Hazare”s fast-unto-death on the Lokpal Bill issue enters the fourth day today, support for his movement is gaining momentum with people from all walks of life, including scientists, film stars and lawyers saying they have turned up here to send across a “bigger message”.
For the majority of the people, the movement is not just about drafting of an “effective” Lokpal Bill, but it is about cautioning the government against “ever increasing corruption” and scams as a result of which India”s imgae has taken a “serious beating”.
“This movement is against corruption. It is a movement to cleanse India”s image as a graft-ridden country” said Gurpreet Singh, a 45-year-old social activist from Chandigarh who has come here to participate in the protest.
1 Comment
India is not represented at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar – it is too big and pockets of resistance are too widely spread out across the country. From the jungles of Mizoram to the Mysore forests, from Rameshwaram coasts to Pir Panjal Mountains and from the Barmer border areas to Poorniya tarais in Bihar, it is all isolated enough not to precipitate into a revolution like Egypt. The state is better orgainized than any insurgent group to be able to suppress the different pockets of revolt. The only organised power today besides the state is the conglomeration of corporates and business houses who, due to their very nature, would not risk their business for any social cause. So, the only way is to test the ‘force’ of the state in the big cities through peaceful civil non-obedience – small protest groups routinely testing out the limits of the state when force would be used by police even against perfectly peaceful and non-violent protests. Check out on what agendas of protest causes the state to use force rather quickly…this woudl give a fair idea.