Albert Camus, a Nobel laureate in literature and a prominent Existentialist philosopher, defined a rebel as a person who says ‘No’ to a system and also introduces an alternative system. My problem with the Anna Hazare politics has been that they had no vision for an alternative system. They were only saying ‘No’ to the existing systems. They were merely demanding eradication of corruption. That’s as good as demanding eradication of jealousy and greed (or even baldness) from human beings. To say that you want to remove corruption from public life is tantamount to saying that you will remove jealousy or greed from human hearts. That’s not a vision. That’s not a system or ideology.
Having a positive vision is essential for a public figure. Here’s my problem with Anna Hazare. What’s his vision? He wanted to eliminate corruption. Finally he seems to have understood that a vision cannot be negative. What do you want to establish? You want to establish a corruption-free state in India. No, even that’s not a positive statement. Remove the word corruption from the vision. Say that you want to establish a state where every citizen will enjoy equal benefits, equal opportunities, equal justice.
Can you do that Anna?
I will salute you if you can do that. I’m with your political party. I will definitely vote your party in the next election. But I will monitor your party’s working closely. Don’t disappoint me, please.
[Note: I’ve not been able to log in to WordPress for a long time. Now that I’ve changed my computer’s operating system I’ve been trying (for a pretty long while) to see whether it works. I suspect of a greater foul play with my blog. If the problem persists, as it seems to do up to now, I’ll open a new blog.]
Matheikal's Blog 
Power corrupts. If they don’t get corrupted the junior level cadres will, somehow you cannot expect perfection int hese stuff.
Hope someone, be able to clean this mess …
p.s. why don’t you get your own domain and have wordpress hosted. It will be more pain free and you can change anything you want. I can surely help you with that 🙂
Aram, I know I can only vote for a change. The change may not happen at all, I know that too. Power has to corrupt!
Any protest would do two things – 1. Cause awareness; 2. Suggest alternatives. Now I think the protest is complete.
Sir, I hope that you have taken note of the fact that Anna has distanced himself from the party.
But, Sid, Anna’s movement was not merely a protest, I believe. I would say let him form the party, let the party come to power, and let us see what happens then. (Though we know what will happen 🙂
The problem is that they just put all their energy on one point ie. Jan Lok Pal. That in itself is not the panacea of all ills. Someone needs to visualise all the changes in the systems or a complete revamp of it. Unfortunately, there are people around Anna who appear to have a complete self-promotion agenda.
Yes, visualisation of a new system – that’s exactly what’s needed. and its implementation in practical terms. Can they do it?
thats right sir.
I don’t understand that how come will it be possible for “ANNA HAZARE” to build up a national party within a span of just 2 years when presently his core committee consist of not more than 20 members and for a national party i think atleast 550 members will be required and how will Hazare and his party will be able to find more of such “CORRUPT-FREE” members with almost no more time for the elections………..i think that this so called “UNCORRUPTED” party will end up with mere self interest and no more of public work and join the ones like Congress,BJP,BSP,SP and so many….
Nice to see you here, Shivendra. You are simply right, Anna won’t be able to find even a score people who fulfil his criteria!
Matheikal,
It was obvious right from day one that Hazare was living in Fool’s Paradise. Corruption is not objective. Then, how can it be eradicated? Therefore, the signature slogan of his movement fell flat the first time I heard that. As easy as the slogan is, it is also meaningless.
A remark on what Sid says: In the whole of India you would not find one person who is not aware of our corruption. In fact, the set of people knowing Hazare must be a whole lot smaller, indeed tiny. Therefore, Hazare’s protest movement did more to raise people’s awareness of Hazare rather than of corruption 🙂
RE
Raghuram, I never set much store my Anna. And I don’t think another political party is going to make any difference. Do you think Anna or any of his team members will come up with a practical strategy for building up a better India? That’s what I am looking forwrd to.
Apparently I have been disabled from posting any further at WordPress. Any hacker can do that. So I have migrated to my blogspot blog. In case my blog interests you, please log on to: http://matheikal.blogspot.com
Right said!
584647 644627Outstanding read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing some research on that. And he really bought me lunch since I discovered it for him smile So let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch! 669867
You have succinctly put forth the pith of Anna! I am not being a cynic but am afraid he might not be up to it. It was great to find Camus quoted in the Indian Blogsphere!