Anna and Baba I think you need to learn something from Gandhi

Over the last one year, the present UPA government has got used to being periodically bombarded by exposes of innumerable cases of financial irregularities. The people of the country, too, have got increasingly frustrated with the top UPA leadership for its absolute failure to rein in or punish these unscrupulous elements. Deliberations on the corruption-slaying Lok Pal bill got a new fillip on April 5, 2011 when Anna Hazare started an indefinite fast unto death in New Delhi. Prominent activists, jurists and public figures supported Anna and the white collar crowd at Jantar Mantar soon swelled to 6,000. Anna called it the "Second Freedom Struggle" and the people lapped it up. Even before Anna ended his 90-hour fast after the Centre agreed to include five civil society representatives in the bill drafting committee, people had started calling it a 'revolution'. A section of the Indian media also got carried away, labelling Anna as "Today's Gandhi". Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev's anti-graft movement has been infinitely more dramatic. From touching down in a private jet in Delhi to his unsuccessful escape bid in the guise of a woman, from the assembly of fanatic right-wing elements on the Ramlila Maidan dais to Baba's rock starlike plunge into the crowd , from his high-profile meetings with UPA troubleshooters in luxury hotel to the high-handed and undemocratic midnight police action - for once 24/7 news outlets became entertainment channels. But as I write down these words, Baba is back in his Hardwar Ashram and Anna back in Delhi, both on fast. And it astounds me to see how charitable the media and the people, have become with dispensation of labels like "Second Freedom Struggle", "Today's Gandhi" and "Satyagraha". To find some sense, I would like to take you back in times when Mahatma Gandhi was setting the standard for many of these labels. Having seen the efficacy of Satyagraha in South Africa, Gandhi came back to India in 1915. In April 1917, Gandhi went to Champaran in Bihar to learn about the suffering of indigo workers. When he launched a civil disobedience movement there, he was ordered to leave but insisted on staying. He was arrested but the British authorities soon realised that only Gandhi could control the agitated crowd. The indigo workers' grievances were taken into account and reforms carried out. Gandhi also suggested a hartal to the textile workers of Ahmedabad who were long deprived of their dues but the workers were disunited on this plan of action. Gandhi sat on his first fast to encourage them to continue the strike. Gandhi's first fast was, thus, not to coerce the opponent but to strengthen the movement of the people. Another time, Gandhi decided to call for a one-day cessation of all economic activity on April 6, 1919 to protest against the killing of nine people in Old Delhi by Gurkha troops. The whole of India stopped work and he was arrested trying to go to Delhi two days later. News of his arrest led to civil disobedience. Gandhi came back to an Ahmedabad under martial law because mill workers had killed a British officer, burned government buildings, captured weapons and plundered shops. Gandhi was aghast at the behaviour of his own supporters and fasted for three

days in penance. He not just called off the campaign but acknowledged that he had made a "Himalayan miscalculation". When Edward VIII, the Prince of Wales, visited Bombay in 1921, protests degenerated into mob violence. Some policemen were beaten to death. Bombay, as it was called then, saw three days of rioting that claimed 58 lives and left about five hundred injured. Gandhi sat on a fast to end the violence. Gandhi planned a massive nonviolent campaign in the beginning of 1922 but news of 23 policemen being burnt alive in Chauri Chaura by an irate mob reached him on February 8, the day the campaign was to take off. Gandhi cancelled it and sat on a penitential fast for five days. Yet, the British Viceroy ordered his arrest and on March 10, 1922 Gandhi faced the only judicial trial by the British. To Justice Robert Broomfield he said, "I do not ask for mercy. I do not plead any extenuating act. I am here, therefore, to invite and cheerfully submit to the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is a deliberate crime and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen. In my opinion, non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good." Gandhi was sentenced to jail for six years but released after 2 years on the ground of ill health. Religious conflict between Hindus and Muslims plagued national unity for long. In 1924, after a reportedly anti-Muslim book was published, its author was murdered and 36 people were killed at Kohat. Gandhi fasted for three weeks, he meant to promote unity and religious tolerance. In the beginning of 1932, communication with the British Viceroy broke down over the threat of civil disobedience and Gandhi was arrested. On September 18 when he was in the Yeravada jail, Gandhi sat on a six-day fast on behalf of the Harijans because they had been given a separate electorate. The Yeravada Pact was signed on September 24, it was ratified the next day. Hindu temples were opened to untouchables for the first time. Still concerned about the Harijans, he fasted for three weeks in May 1933. The British Raj released him from prison; they feared Gandhi could die. In August 1933 he was arrested again and was sentenced to one year. On the seventh day of his fast, he was released unconditionally in a very precarious condition. On July 14, 1942, the Congress Working Committee adopted the famous "Quit India" resolution, and on August 7, a massive nationwide struggle began under Gandhi's leadership. He was promptly arrested along with other leaders; Congress was declared illegal. While he was detained at the Aga Khan Palace, an extremely feeble Gandhi announced a three-week fast to seek justice. The British called it "political blackmail". Gandhi began his fast on February 10, 1943 but keeping his ill health in mind consumed a bit of lime water. He was released from prison on May 5, 1944. When Partition became inevitable, the country was engulfed by communal riots. Gandhi went to Calcutta to calm the injured soul. On August 15, 1947, as the entire country rejoiced, Gandhi fasted in Calcutta. It was to mourn the dead and the injured and to stop the violence. On

September 1, he went on a three-day fast before municipal officials in Calcutta assured him that there had been no violence for 24 hours. Gandhi's last fast began on January 13, 1948, for cessation of all religious violence in India and to demand that the Indian Cabinet agreed to pay the 40 million pounds from united India's assets that they had withheld from Pakistan because of Islamabad's misadventure on Kashmir. Nehru's Cabinet relented and on January 18, the Congress got the Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jews and other religious groups to sign a peace agreement. Gandhi spent 249 days in South African jails and 2,089 days in British Indian jails. Life in jail was less comfortable then than it is now. But somehow, for some reason, Gandhi did not run away, did not jump from any stage, did not try to escape in the disguise of a woman. Gandhi used fasts to defend the truth, to exact rightful political concessions, not to build a personality cult around a political circus and build 1700 crores of wealth Frivolities apart, it is also also wondering what Gandhi would have said about Anna's role during the Emergency years. While leaders like JP were being arrested and the voice of the media muzzled, Anna and his followers were tying people to trees and beating them up for drinking alcohol or chewing tobacco in his model villages of Maharashtra. Anna Hazare's day-long fast is almost over. What an irony that Anna had to choose Rajghat, the resting place of the Mahatma, as the shooting locale of the latest episode of this ongoing soap opera. Everyone wants a strong Lok Pal Bill and end to the loot of public money . Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev both know that without people's support, it won't be possible. In that regard, Albert Einstein's words about Gandhi may help: "He demonstrated that a powerful human following can be assembled not through the cunning game of the usual political manoeuvres and trickeries but through the cogent example of a morally superior conduct of life."