New Delhi: BJP leader LK Advani has joined the debate on whether Anna Hazare's protest helped the cause of democracy.
The Bharatiya Janata Party patriarch, without mentioning any names, slammed those who he said "revel in spreading a general climate of disdain about politics and politicians are doing a gross disservice to democracy."
Hazare was quick to respond to the charges Advani made in his blog. "What Advani has said is wrong. If politicians like him were on the right path we didn’t have to start a movement like this," he said.
However, Advani also extolled Hazare's "disinclination to believe that all politicians are corrupt," and said the veteran Gandhian publicly apologized to politician Uma Bharti who was turned away from New Delhi's Jantar Mantar where he was on a fast unto death last week.
Here is the full text of Advani's blog post:
The Anna Hazare episode
After witnessing the World Cup Final at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, on April 2nd, I had written that it was not just the thousands at the stadium who were exploding with joy, the entire country felt ecstatic and proud the moment they heard that India had won the cup. I am not surprised that reporting Government's assurance to Anna Hazare on the basis of which the veteran has called off his fast, the Times of India's front page Banner Headline says: INDIA WINS AGAIN !
On the evening of Friday April 8, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee rang me up to apprise me about the terms of the deal government had been able to work out with Hazare. He said Government has assured Anna that the Lokpal Bill as drafted by the proposed Committee, would be introduced in Parliament during its Monsoon session. My comment was: Let it be passed in that session. Even if the Bill is to be referred to the Standing Committee, it can be finalized and passed. Every one is keen that there be no delay in tackling corruption. In fact Government should be conscious that the dimensions of corruption have become so frightening that the assault on this malady has to be multi-pronged.
A meeting of political parties should be convened to discuss this issue particularly in the context of black money and curbing money-power in elections.
Panic-stricken by the groundswell of public support Anna Hazare's fast against corruption had received, Government finally succumbed. But as India Today remarked, not before "showing its mean face"!
The report, by Kay Benedict and Ashish Sinha, went on to say: ‘Liberally loading its smear brush with saffron, a senior party leader fumed: "He is not a Gandhian, but an RSS agent.'
Anna Hazare's own comment about this charge was: "Those who wear coloured glasses see everything in one colour."
In his letter to the Prime Minister, Anna wrote: "Kindly stop finding faults and suspecting conspiracies in our movement. Even if there were, it does not absolve you of your responsibility to stop corruption."
Opposition Parties in Parliament have ample justification to hold that it is their protest during the last winter session of Parliament against the series of scams that had surfaced, that has triggered off a jana andolan against corruption.
When I first met Baba Ramdev at the Kumbh Mela at Haridwar, I kept thinking how his excellent grasp of the contribution that Yogasanas can make towards the health of a common citizen irrespective of his or her age, combined with the impact of television, had made him a rare phenomenon.
In these last six decades there have been many other masters of the science of yoga - some of them perhaps equipped with even greater expertise THAN Baba Ramdev, but if none could achieve the status of an icon as Ramdevji has achieved, it is only because in this latter case it is oriental wisdom being blended with western technology that has worked wonders.
In Anna Hazare's case, T.V. has been replaced by IT and it has made the 73-year old veteran ex-serviceman another icon not just for the country but for Indians around the globe.
The immediate effect has been that the JPC which the NDA, supported by the entire opposition could achieve only after two months and that too after the opposition had created history by not allowing Parliament to have any business for the whole of the winter session, Hazare was able to achieve his limited objective of a more effective Lokpal Bill within four days of his announcement of a fast unto death.
I wish Government realizes that in both cases - the opposition's success in getting a JPC, and in Anna's success about a law for Lokpal, the principal contributory has been the UPA Government itself which by now has earned the singular reputation of being the most corrupt government independent India has seen.
The series of scams that have surfaced in recent months and their cost dimensions for the country have really created a feeling of intense anger against the establishment. Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare are widely perceived as upright persons who have no personal axe to grind. By taking up a campaign against corruption they have become natural recipients of public acclaim.
There is no dearth of analysts who hold that the popularity of these two personalities have a lot to do with the fact that they shun political personalities. No wonder the news that Uma Bharati was turned away from Jantar Mantar, the venue of Anna Hazare's fast was very prominently publicized. It was done by some who claimed to be Anna's followers. It is index of Anna's innate decency, and his disinclination to believe that all politicians are corrupt that when he learnt about this he publicly apologized to Uma.
In fact, I am of the view that those who revel in spreading a general climate of disdain about politics and politicians are doing a gross disservice to democracy.
Despite the short comings 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.
In my political life of over six decades, I personally have worked with Deendayal Upadhyaya, Jaya Prakash Narain, A.B. Vajpayee, and Nanaji Deshmukh who are role-models not only for those in politics, but for all Indians irrespective of their avocation.
Speaking about role-models in the field of politics, I am reminded of a superb biography of Abraham Lincoln I had read last year. Titled Team of Rivals, the book had earned the Pulitzer Prize for its author Doris Kearns Good win.
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